400 miles in 100 days: An Invitation for Unity and Reconciliation

January 19, 2021

400_100 Blog

The 400 Mile in 100 Day Challenge - Join us! 

This is an invitation!! 

Like many of you, I watched the attack on our capital by home grown terrorists, with a sense of extreme anger, frustration, and a sense of dread; informed by the knowledge that the anger and delusion fomented over the last four years will not end January 20.

Many called out the double standard of how the rioters were enabled at the Capitol, calling it an extreme example of white privilege. And while I agree, I also believe white privilege only begins to describe what happened on the 6th. Our democracy has deteriorated and become deluded over the last four years. White supremacy was on naked display by self described “patriots” bent on “taking their country back”. These rioters are on the losing and dying side of a democracy that has operated in a caste system., which disadvantages people of color. But as demographics change, and “white” becomes the new minority, and if our democracy holds, it will naturally evolve.  It will transform who we elect as leaders, who we are as people, and the definition of what it means to be an American. It will evolve how we tell our American story - and it will include all of us. This is why white supremacists were storming the Capitol - these changes are not welcome. However, these changes are on their way. As teachers we see them in the eyes and expectations of our young people who demand a new historical narrative, new institutions, and ask us to do the hard work to purge racism from our minds, institutions, and economy. It’s a long road ahead, but it is ahead.  

So when Teaching Matters’ board member Joe Lewis posted this challenge asking people to come together to run/walk/crawl/row or step... 400 miles in 100 days of the new administration. I signed right up. We all could use an opportunity to symbolically come together. In Joe’s words, “2021 is a chance for restorative advancement. Through this challenge we acknowledge our past failures, we look forward to a new future while physically improving ourselves.”

As CEO of Teaching Matters, I wanted to share this opportunity with our teacher community. You have worked so hard this last year. 400 miles can mean different things to different people. To Joe, it represented 400 years of inequity, 400 years since the scourge of slavery started in the US, and by the end of this walk, 400 days of COVID  isolation. Whatever 400 represents to you, let us work it out together. Run with us. Crawl, row, skip, get your steps in with us (8,000 a day).   

Join a group of folks who are starting out together, positive, and in 100 days.. healthier and, maybe, a bit more hopeful than we have felt for some time.     

(And 4 miles a day is 8,000 steps… so really not that bad!) 

Join our group on FACEBOOK!    And share it with others.  Let’s do it!!  400 miles in 100 days. Together. 

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