Check in if you protested the Iraq War

[davsand]

196. More than once.

Don't understand why we are STILL at it.


I even took my daughter to a couple of the local protests. That is atypical because I have always avoided taking her along if I thought the protests or pickets might get heated at all. She's been on her share of union lines and in a number or parades over the years, but anything that I thought might stand a remote chance of getting escalated I left her out of it. For sure, she got left home for actual strike lines because I have seen some hard stuff go on at those. Both times she went out with me for the anti-war protests she'd asked to be allowed to go. I allowed it because this is her world too--she deserved to have her voice heard.

During one protest she actually looked at me and asked if what we were doing was legal. She was afraid we could be arrested for being out there. Almost broke my heart to see my daughter holding a school photo of an Iraqi child her own age who'd been killed by our bombs. She "got" how awful it was, and she chose that photo herself--this was not anything I put her up to doing, and she was worried that in her own country she could be arrested for it. I explained to her that we have the right and, in fact, obligation to stand for something we feel strongly about. We had a long talk about our constitution and our laws and how they work. To this day, my kid (now a teen) is one to speak her mind and stand up for what she thinks, and I honestly feel it is because her dad and I both have been out front on the difficult stuff over the years.

You gotta stand up sometimes if you want to stand for anything at all.



Laura