(in honor of the birthday of Dr. Seuss and 

dedicated to Horton, who first heard the Who) 

On the fourteenth of February
    in the City of Who-cester
In the Council's great Chamber
    site of many a twister,
They were meeting on schools
    as they do every Thursday,
When several decided
    that this was the day.

Six long years they'd been told
    they must "cut, cut, cut, cut!"
This year they declared,
    "That will be quite enough!
"We've cut and we've cut
    and we've closed and we've fired!
And now we must say
    that we really are tired."

So together they drafted
    a polite resolution
And said to themselves
    "While not a solution
"It beats sitting back
    'til we wait to be given
"Not nearly enough
    for year number seven!"

While voices much louder
    bewailed crumbling sidewalks,
Who heard the small taps
    on the blackboard of chalks?
(Chalks purchased, of course,
    by the teacher herself
'Else even that small tap
    would vanish itself.)

For kids go to school
    forty weeks of the year.
They may lack for teachers,
    and books may be dear.
The roof may be leaking,
    the copier broken.
Computers, it seems,
not much more than a token.

But attend school they must
    'though the ceiling tiles fall
And that mold keeps on creeping
    across the back wall.
The library's closed
    for we have no librarian.
Who could blame kids becoming
    a little contrarian?



Kids don't vote, they don't call,
    and they don't go to meetings.
You could even ignore them
    unlike other bleatings.
Their parents, exhausted
    from working two jobs,
Are also oft silent
    no time to hobnob.

The committee had heard them,
    'though, active or not,
So on the agenda it went,
    for they thought,
"We do have to fix this,
    Because after all,
A person's a person
    no matter how small."

They hadn't yet voted
    Had not had their meeting
But Council met Tuesday
    and though it seemed cheating
They'd seen that small item
    and hoped now to stop it.
They'd jump on that item
    and lop it and pop it!

"Humpf!" humpfed a voice
    'Twas a sourpuss councilor
And Council's great Chamber
    rang loud with his clamour
"We've given them money
    for year after year!
"Pennies from heaven?
    With money so dear?"

"How dare they?" "How could they?"
    And so it went on.
"Irresponsible!" "Not acceptable!"
    ever closer to dawn.
And others stood up
    and they also were bothered.
Five million more dollars!
    Now they really saw red!

But children don't wait
    for great market boom times;
They grow and must learn
    even in doom-and-gloom times.
They'll dodge all the leaks
    and bring pencils from home,
And the Council won't hear them;   
    They're not on the phone.



And the radical notion
    that kids deserve better
That waiting won't solve this
    that nor will a letter
To D.C. or Boston.
    Most of that which is spent
Is the fed or the state
    sixty-five full percent!

We sure can do better
    if we only are willing
And, yes, it costs money
    (what doesn't? I'm thinking).
But our kids count on us
    and we must speak for those
Who are little and learning
    or our city's but a pose.

And the humpf-ers will "humpf!"
    it will only get worse
And so we will ask
    (as Horton did first)
"Are you sure every Who
    down in Who-cester is working?
Are you writing or calling?
    Are you loud? Are you pushing?"

Remember the Doctor:
    the smallest of all
Can add just enough
    to finish the call.   
Let us make lots of noise
    for the children who need us.
Let's fund education-
    the city--indeed--US!