Monday, March 7, 2011

Booboo's questions about our world.

I don't recall, though I was eight, when Martin Luther King Jr. died or even having hear of Robert Kennedy. I lived in a household that was pretty laid back in the 60's. We were just trying to make ends meet. My father a life long history buff, enjoyed it and read alot of historical non-fiction book. I develop a love of my the  political world by the time I was 12, I remember being a Nixonite in school, even when he fell and no one wanted to be associated with him. I was and am a Nixon Republican. I love history and excelled in it, I remember Max Backus walking across the state to get elected. I don't remember even one of my siblings having any interest in the world or politic outside of our home. I don't know that I was different from other kids, but that was how I grew up with an awareness of the world, and love the news. I proudly was among the first 18 year olds allowed to vote, and voted ever since.

My older children, though all are registered to vote, I don't believe have ever voted. I know they don't really keep up with the world at large. They find mom's efforts to a bit comical and a waste of time, I think. They don't worry about things that "don't effect them", if only they knew that those things do. Poppie has lived with me a long time, so my interests have rubbed off on him. We enjoy news feed, history related tv and all things about our world. We have 4 tv's that sort of just run in the background of our lives, and the news channel, the children's channels on two and one that usually has cooking on it. We don't go out of our world alot but  the important outside world events do come in.

Imaging my surprise last month when Booboo,7, says to me, "What happened to the People in the buildings?" We were watching a show on the twin towers when she happened by. I spent the next hour trying to explain it to her on her level. She kept asking very grown up questions well beyond her years. She got all the answers she need and went on with her day. The next week the Tucson event happened and she had to know why the little girl was shot. Who would do that bad thing. Again it was so shocking to me that she would need to know all about the event and be so in need of answers about the little child that lost her life. She has since asked about other news items, why did a daddy kill his children? Where was the momma? I don't restrict her from the news as she is very clearly interested and is needing to know about her world.

A couple of days ago she was talking to me about a little set of twins that joined her class a month ago. She had told me about playing with them several times, how nice they were and just child things about her life at school. But this day was different, she said, "Mamma why do the other kids have to tease Jaylee and Jaylin about there skin color? I said "Why would they?"  She said "because they are like Jesse but they don't have curly hair." I didn't know until that moment they were African American, she had never said they were and it didn't matter that they were to her. In our family, we have alot of different ethnicity's, so it is really never even talked about, and Jesse is a friend of the girls that is also African American, but he is just Jesse. I was so proud of her in the moment, both of the girls for that matter, as neither have ever really seen the twins or Jesse's color. We continued our talk, as she was studying Abraham Lincoln in school, and her teacher had told her that he was trying to help the people "that worked really hard be free" . The teacher may or may not have mentioned that the people "that worked really hard" were African American slaves, I don't know but if she did Booboo didn't get that part. We talked about the bad things that slavery did to the African Americans, she still didn't quite know why skin color would make a difference; but you can bet she won't let her little friends be bullied by anyone at school anymore. She is a strong little mite and helps her sister, the weaker of the two, get on at school and life. She doesn't abide bulling and says so..... tomorrow.

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