Just out of the blue Thing 1 said to me yesterday : "Mommy, did you hear the polar ice caps are melting?" Thing 2, who was nearby jumped into the conversation with a "Yeah, and supposedly the polar bears are dying because the world is getting warmer. Is it true mommy, is is true the polar bears are dying?" With misty eyes Thing 1 added, "And the penguins, mommy. Are they dying to?"
I wasn't surprised that my kids asked me these questions. I was surprised it took them so long.
All of my kids education, political or otherwise, is based on evidence. When we went to see the penguin movie, Happy Feet [1], I explained how the movie uses Mumble the penguin's oddyssey to talk about the UNification of Antartica (which happened in 1959) [2] and the politics behind not recognizing global treaties.
Wikipedia [3], by the way, plays an astoundingly important part of these conversations.
Notwithstanding they know mommy does something with a thing called "politics" that keeps her tied to her computer and her blog, they rarely hear me haranguing them about the ills of the world. What they hear me talking about, at least during most of these conversations, is about facts. So George W. Bush is not a bad man : Categories of bad or good in people are problematic to me. Yet in his capacity as President (and leader and representative of the US) George W Bush has been astoundingly bad. And there's enough evidence to support the "GWB is a bad president" judgement.
Anyway ... Back to the kidlets.
Seems that something clicked at school and they were worried that it may be true that the polar bears and penguins are dying due to the ill effects of global warming. Unfortunately, even though this school is supposed to be one of the better public schools in NYC, it suffers from a horrible deficit of the truth based on facts.
I find myself homeschooling my kids more than ever now that they are going to a public school. Grock, I wish I could tell you how much I hate having them in school. Anyhow ...
So we talked about carbon emissions, deforestation, all those big words. I always hit them with the big words and then bring it down to the simple ideas.
So what produces carbon emissions? Well, that ConEdison plant that's 3 blocks away is a good example. But the cars too. We have too many cars in this coutry.
I explained why the sky looks brown over the Pulaski Skyway on our way to visit their grandparents in New Jersey. Of how we need to rent a car because mass transit is basically non-existent elsewhere. And I explained the logic of using the car industry as the (all pun intended) engine of suburban sprawl.
The new Pixar movie Cars [4] actually came in quite handy to contextualize this fact.
So Thing 2, with his big brown eyes comes to me later that evening and says :
"Mom, I want to go to Washington DC".
"Sure honey, we'll go soon." It was such an odd request though, I had to ask. "Why do you want to go to Washington DC?"
"Because I want to go to talk to the President mommy".
"Really? Why?"
And in all his 6 year-old glory my son said : "Because he needs to hear me talk about the polar bears and penguins. I don't want them to die. And I want to see snow in winter. And I want him to tell people to stop using so many many cars. And I want him to stop global warming".
I was stunned. I did not know what to say. So I gave him a big hug, a big kiss and I said : "I wish it were that easy but I promise you, if the opportunity comes, you'll be the first one to tell the President. I will make sure of that".
"Thanks mommy".
And with that, he went on to play with his Zoobs [5], leaving tears in my eyes and hope in my heart.
I am witnessing the birth of an activist.
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