Not to take anything away from Veronica Mars (indeed, more power to her!), but if a “make believe” Veronica Mars can raise $2 million in 12 hours (and close to $6 million overall) with her crowdsource campaign to fund a movie, surely a “real-life” Mary Beth Tinker — winner of a landmark Supreme Court student free speech case and a proven civics education/free speech “superstar” featured in student textbooks — can raise a tiny

fraction of that to get on a bus and go to schools across the country to share her powerful story with the next generation — a generation that will need all the power it can muster if it is to successfully confront the big issues it faces.

It is 2013 and things feel kinda crazy, but not that crazy, right?

We’ve been invited to the Liberty Bell to kick off our tour, the U.S. Supreme Court for a discussion of Mary Beth’s role in history, the major national conventions of social studies and high school journalism teachers and to more than 100 schools and colleges across the country, but we don’t have a bus (or reliable RV) to reach them. We also have a list of endorsements made up of the Who’s Who List of civics education, civil rights and journalism organizations in the country, but with just 15 days left in campaign, we haven’t yet cracked the $10,000 mark.

It just seems upside down. Bizarro World.

If you’ve not yet donated or shared news about the Tinker Tour with your friends or family (and a triple THANK YOU to those who have!), we’d sure appreciate your help.

We promise to put on a good show, too!