Checks and Balances

Took Rowan to school this morning.  She politely asked if we could listen to the radio, because she hates all my cds, and lands on NPR. They were telling a story about  the travel ban and the way some judges have acted against it.  We listen in silence for four blocks, and when we turn into the drop off line, she says “checks and balances, we have checks and balances” shaking her head at the news. Her public education has given her this idea, that our form of government is set up with safeguards to protect our democracy. Now these civic ideals that she has learned about in school are being put to the test in a Brave New World of our own making.

Our children are watching this unfold, as they learn to navigate in the wider world.  What are we teaching them about the quality of the public discourse? What are we teaching them about the ideals of democracy, and how they are being tested by the current social climate?

There was a March downtown this weekend, Rowan went with Maya and her mom. I was working.  She brought home the sign she made to carry. I want to hang it on the living room wall but she won’t let me, so I’m keeping it in the laundry room where I get to look at it two or three times a day.  

the buffalo stands with the resistance

Anyway, when she got home we talked about it a little, and what I got out of the conversation was this - The friends she saw at the march, and there were many – not just teenagers but adults who have made meaningful impressions on her over the years – they made the event mean something to my kid. I know she’s scared for the future, and I could tell that participating in the march helped her address that fear.  So, WINNING.