By John R. Alston Trotter, EdD, JD

Editor's Note:  Photos and video of the Capitol picket will be up shortly, as well as photos of the Atlanta picket (Beverly Hall), Lake Ridge Elementary in Clayton County (Brenda Cloud), and Towers High School in DeKalb County (Skip Nelloms).

   Yesterday morning, I got my day starting by writing a fairly lengthy letter for a teacher in a DeKalb elementary school.  Then, we descended downtown to the Capitol to picket between the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building (LOB).  Our signs were colorful and they were definitely catching the attention of the legislators who were coming into the Capitol at 2:00 PM.  (An education committee meeting had just adjourned at the LOB.)  The signs, off the top of my head, were such as:  "Teachers Teach.  Administrators Cheat"; "Save Teachers.  Reduce Administrators";  "Chop Administrative Bloat!  Furlough Administrators"; "Next Election:  Teachers With Pitchforks" and others.  The Capitol and State Police force were all agitated and calling in re-enforcements, claiming that we could not picket at this location at the Capitol but had to picket at a "designated area" (on Washington Street).  Well, if you know me, you know that this precipitated a big confrontation and a pow-wow between the police and me.  I take umbrage at the fact that law enforcement officers just do not respect a Category One Free Speech Forum.  After I went in detail about the U. S. Supreme Court's dissertations on the First Amendment (time, manner, and place regulation which must be accompanied by a compelling State interest which also must guarantee "the least restrictive alternative," which in this case would be directly across the street in front of the Legislative Office Building and the Judicial Building; the fact also that any regulation has to be "content neutral") and after much fulminations were impregnating the air, we decided to move the picket to the Washington Street-Trinity Street corner of the Capitol, much to the relief of the Officers.  This too was a good location to picket.  I must give a "shout-out" to Captain Les Robinson.  He was called in to deal with the MACE Picketers.  He handled himself most professionally.  He told me that he really didn't want to have to arrest me.  I told him that I had earlier in my career spent some time in the "Garnett Hotel" around the corner from the Capitol and that my biggest complaint about going to jail is that it is so excruciatingly boring in jail, and I feel like I am an expert in this area, having matriculated through a few jails in my professional career.  I have never been convicted.  Charges have always been dropped (except on one occasion when they were "dead docketed").  I must say that I am proud of all of the times that I have been arrested...always for speaking out on what I believe to be right -- speech protected, mind you, by the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution as well as protected the same by our Georgia Constitution.

   For the record, the State has a "Code 50" that apparently (note that I say "apparently") gives the State Police the right to regulate demonstrations in front of State buildings.  I demonstrably (yes, this will soon be on MACE LIVE TV via www.theteachersadvocate.com, You Tube, and many other distributors) told the Police that the State's Code 50 did not meet muster with the U. S. Supreme Court's rulings on Category One Free Speech Forums.  For example, the Washington, D. C. City Council passed a local ordinance forbidding citizens from picketing in front of the United States Supreme Court building.  But, in U. S. v. Grace, the U. S. Supreme Court struck down this ordinance as unconstitutional, saying that citizens could indeed picket the Court.

   One thing that we are not so good at MACE...getting the media to cover our events.  We generally operate like a triage center, and the pace is so fast-paced that we don't have time to send out press releases about a gathering or demonstration.  I hear that PAGE, GAE, and even GFT are planning different demonstrations at the Capitol.  Good.  I am glad.  The more demonstrations, the merrier.  At MACE, we generally do not ask our  teacher-members to take a day off to show up at the Capitol to picket.  We, as MACE Staff, usually do the picketing for our members.  In 2000, this was an exception to the rule when Governor Roy Barnes was in the process of dismantling due process rights for teachers in Georgia.  Then, we did call upon our members to take a Personal Leave Day.  We showed up at the Capitol in mass and had three straight days of pickets against "Redneck Roy," as I dubbed him and was roundly criticized in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for doing so.  We had some most colorful signs back then, such as:  "Roy Flunked Character Education!"  I would like to be able to attend the demonstration on Saturday, but my parents have been married for 65 years, and we planned a big celebration for them in Columbus on Saturday evening.  As many teachers who can get out, please attend any and all of the demonstrations against the efforts to balance the State budget on the backs of teachers as well as against the asinine notion that the so-called "All Star Teachers" program will do anything but further perpetuate and facilitate the culture of cheating in Georgia.  (c) MACE, February 19, 2010.