I wrote the following piece during the summer of 2014. Sadly, I could write it word for word again today, but with a different name.
Parenting, Protesting, and Educating: Hoping the world will be able to breath
Protestors shouted from my TV. I watched. My stomach moved its way up into my throat. I watched. Tears rolled down the cheeks of people I didn’t know. I watched. Cars were overturned. I watched. People walked together and chanted. I watched. A young man shot. A man choked and dead. And I watched.
I watched. I watched with an upset stomach and a lump in my throat… just watching.
My 10-year-old son emerged from his bedroom as the news played across the television. He stopped behind my right shoulder, watching as Erik Garner held his arms above his head and a police officer choked him and pushed him to the ground. He watched as Eric Garner gasped 11 times, “I can’t breathe.”
“What’s this,” he asked.
“The news,” I responded.
“Is this happening here?”
“Yes.”
“In America?”
“Yes.”
Usually, when my son comes out at night to ask a question, I answer and tell him to go back to bed. But I didn’t this time. As homeschooling parents, we try to present a full picture of historical and current events to our children – Columbus’s arrival resulted in the slaughter of millions, the Declaration of Independence was written when all people were not treated as equals, slavery didn’t end with the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement didn’t stop with Martin Luther King, Jr., Stonewall shouldn’t be overlooked, and torture is wrong. And so my son and I watched together.
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