We are not a very politically minded family. I mean, we uphold the constitution and love to celebrate the Fourth of July and all, but we enjoy watching political matters from the comforts of the living room couch.
In our home, we stand for truth and righteousness. We believe in being good citizens and obeying the law. But when it comes to feeling so strongly about an issue, that we would stand outside and hold signs and protest, we defer to those who are more opinionated.Until now.
It started several weeks ago when Hannah came through the door after school ranting and raving about a proposed ID bill--The Luna Bill AKA Students Come First Legislation.
In her freshman level of understanding, Hannah believed that students would be forced to own laptops, which they would then destroy, and teachers would become obsolete due to required online courses.
She was outraged by the bill.
Students across the state decided to hold a walk-out at 1 PM on Friday afternoon. Through Facebook and texts, they notified each other about the event.
I found out about it the night before as Hannah was debating whether to skip the last two periods of school and stand up for what she believed to be very bad for students, or support her teachers by attending their classes.
She decided to remain in school and protest by wearing strips of duct tape with penned messages across her clothing. Her teachers appreciated her level of support and applauded her decision to remain in school.
I was surprised, then, at 1PM when I got a call from my middle- schooler asking if I would pick her up and drop her off in town so she could protest.
After questioning her for several minutes about her reasons behind protesting and making sure she wasn't just ditching, I decided to check her out.
As I drove to the school, I passed a hoard of teenagers surrounding a white Local News 8 van holding posters of varying colors while screaming and waving their hands as they tried to persuade me to honk in support. As I crawled by in my green van, I looked over the crowd to see if I recognized anyone. I waved timidly at their flailing arms, then felt silly when I realized I was supposed to honk. Too late, I honked and drove on.
At Emily's school, I felt somewhat guilty as I checked her out of class. It must be human nature to want to be a part of the herd, because I really wanted to know who else was crazy enough to check their kids out of school to stand for what they believe in. Not many kids were on the check out list.
I hoped I was doing the right thing.
There seemed to be NO protesters at the designated spot (the local grocery store), so I made Emily go shopping with me instead. Every few minutes she went outside to see if the protesters had arrived.
We finally saw the protesters on a different street as we were leaving the parking lot. I slowly drove by to see what the crowd looked like. At the front of the line, standing tall above the other students, and blond, holding a giant fluorescent sign . . .
was my son!
So much for living quiet, un-opinionated lives!
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