I usually start thinking about what to blog around Thursday or Friday, and then pour my blithering and meandering mental wanderings into a blog on Saturday or Sunday.
So when I anticipated this week's blog, I was thinking of heart warming subjects--describing our Thanksgiving get together (which was yesterday--Saturday), pouring out shiny adjectives to describe our new oven, gathering together head scratching confusion over Patrick and Aya's antics.
I woke up Saturday morning with these lovely subjects still percolating around my head, as I tore bread for stuffing, peeled potatoes for mashed potatoes and cleaned chicken.
Bob came downstairs, iphone in hand and said "Watch this."
I took his iphone and watched the video that has now gone viral--footage of the Occupy Davis protest that occurred sometime Friday afternoon. In a surreal time warp, we were watching it minutes after it happened, even though in Japan it was Saturday morning.
My jaw dropped open. I saw a long line of students, sitting on the sidewalk, arms linked in the classic pose of peaceful protest.
Then I saw a police man in full riot gear (The disconnected words "riot gear" and "Davis" floated through my brain), face the seated protesters, hold up a large can of pepper spray, and drench them in a thick reddish mist of the stuff.
The crowd of observing students and by standers began chanting "Shame on You!" as the policeman continued spraying, yanking out those protesters in too much pain to keep connected to the line, and kneeling on their backs in order to handcuff them. The crowd got louder, their noise no doubt bringing others out of offices and buildings, drawing in passers by.
I think there are huge numbers of people across the United States and throughout the world, watching these videos and mumbling to themselves in disbelief "Here? This is happening here?" And even though we are so far away in Japan, suddenly the "occupy" movement was sitting in our backyard, so to speak. And we are now the ones mumbling to ourselves in disbelief "There? This is happening THERE?".
I'm not talking about feeling disbelief over the protesters. Peaceful protest--whether it be loud chanting, silent-but-poignant costuming, or thoughtful speech making, in numbers of a few dozen to a few thousand--has become woven into the fabric of our lives and is, indeed, a powerful tool for change and communication. (emphasis on the words "peaceful protest" folks, not "out of control crazy ranting property damaging lunacy". And no, I do not consider tents part of "out of control crazy ranting property damaging lunacy". A possible sanitation issue? Yes, considering the logistics of providing toilet and water facilities to huge numbers of people, but property damaging lunacy, no. )
I'm talking about the police--their actions, their decisions, the decisions of their superiors, and of the UC Davis Chancellor. I watched the video again. I saw agitated students, I heard loud chanting. I saw people sitting. For the life of me I couldn't spy any protesters touching the police officers, throwing things at them or threatening them in any way, aside from chanting in their faces. If any of that were going on, then the story would be different. I still would not approve of the use of pepper spray, but there would be some sort of logic involved (from the officer's point of view) in the use of it. And let's face it--I'm a pretty tame, kindergarten teacher, law abidin', fairly boring sort of person. I usually attach the word "good" with the words "police officer", so I'm not out to do any bashing.
I am out to do some questioning. It's all about critical thinking. If a situation feels really wrong to me, I'm going to think about it and ask about it.
So what happened in Davis? Or Berkeley? Or New York? Or London? Pick your city, pick your people, pick your video....
That protest was what we teachers call "a teachable moment". Yes, the protesters weren't really children any more. They were adults, for the most part. But many if not most of them were students still, which made that a 'teachable moment'. A moment for professors (one of whom suggested this very idea in a letter to the Chancellor), university leaders and city leaders to explore what was happening, why it was happening in Davis and work together to find a way to begin addressing the root causes of this massive movement.
It certainly became a 'teachable moment' for Aya.
She came downstairs Saturday morning as Bob and I were watching and discussing the video. She listened to us for a minute, then got out her ipod and watched the video for herself, and kept asking "This is happening in DAVIS?!".
Later that evening, after our Thanksgiving guests left and with the video still on her mind, Aya got on Bob's computer and began researching the issues around the "Occupy movement" and what exactly was meant by "the 99%". As Bob and I lay in bed, exhausted, Aya sat in Bob's desk chair across the room, venting and ranting about the injustice of it all, and wondering aloud what Obama was doing to change things.
"We should donate money." She said.
"We could. But how long would that money last to bring about change?" I asked her back.
She thought for a moment.
"I guess not very long".
"Okay," I said "So what else could you do to bring about change?"
She was silent.
I said "Think of it this way: what do I do to bring about change?"
"You teach little kids"
I said "That's right. I don't teach them about things like this. I start small."
She nodded "You teach them about accepting other people"
I nodded. "Among other things. And what does your Dad do to bring about change?"
"He teaches college students"
I nodded again. "So do we necessarily need to donate money to make change happen?"
She shook her head.
"You think about that, and think about how you, even as a 12 year old, could make change happen. Maybe in a small way."
She nodded.
And she went to bed.
Right now she is still asleep. I am pretty sure she didn't fall right to sleep last night.
I bet she was up for awhile, eyes open in the dark...thinking.
I'm pretty sure I'm in for an earful of ideas today when she does wake up.
And you know what I call that?
A real reason to give thanks, and to keep up hope.
Until next time....
No comments:
Post a Comment