Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmatic and Run
My two boys have never lived in a world where there was no such thing as a mass shooting, a school shooting, 9/11 or an ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That breaks my heart to write. So I counter it in my head that they have also always lived in a world where you can be connected to one another all the time, across continents at any time. They have always lived in a world where the impossible is just a matter of months or years away from becoming possible.
We send our kids to school and hope that they do not get kidnapped, like in Nigeria. Parents around the world send their kids to school to educate themselves, with hopes that they never have to learn about violence and war from more than books, but that is not to be worldwide.
We pack them off with a hug and wish that they do not have to ever do more than a drill against intruders, that they will not be shot. We tell them to be kind and hope that we offer them a safe home to come to where they will get the protection we can advocate for when others may not be kind to them.
I get so annoyed when I hear people making fun of millenials - they are entitled, they expect, they want, they dare to question the status quo, they want to be rewarded - among them are people who do not want to contribute in any way to their own success in those areas but the vast majority of the millenials I meet are evolving everything we touch because they feel they are entitled to try, they expect to succeed, they want to do more, they question the things they see as not equal and they want to be rewarded with the promise of opportunity.
Our kids should all be like that too. The same way you expect to own a gun you should expect that our children deserve the peace of mind that they will not be killed by it, in school, in an accidental shooting. You should ask for background checks, for a waiting period, for a federal law to protect not only those of us and our children but you too. You should be the ones at the forefront asking that you not be associated with gun violence but with gun owners who understood the need to end the rhetoric for the manufacturers who deal in weapons and change it to members who understand the responsibility.
I want to arm teachers with the tools they need to teach kids to be ready for the future. We need mental health to be a priority along with healthcare because we all deserve to have help. Our schools need to be top notch not top armed.
None of this will stop everything, none of it will. If it stops one shooting then that's worth it to me, if it takes you a month to get a gun but it adds many months to a student than that is a good trade.
One of the things I try and teach my kids is that most things are not like pie, one slice doesn't mean there is one less for others. That is true for equal rights, for empowerment, for opportunity and for disagreements on policy.
I do not want to have to explain to my kids how we did not act -- I want to send my kids off to school and annoy them about homework, about dealing with the drama that will seem silly to them as adults but that consumes them as kids and most of all I want to tell them that kindness wins.
Isn't it time we stop yelling and start using one voice to demand that our children have the future we think they are entitled to - all of them ?? Isn't that something most of us learned in school, in history.
So send your kids off to school, tell them you love them and be those things in life that you want them to grow up to be - most of all kind.
That breaks my heart to write. So I counter it in my head that they have also always lived in a world where you can be connected to one another all the time, across continents at any time. They have always lived in a world where the impossible is just a matter of months or years away from becoming possible.
We send our kids to school and hope that they do not get kidnapped, like in Nigeria. Parents around the world send their kids to school to educate themselves, with hopes that they never have to learn about violence and war from more than books, but that is not to be worldwide.
We pack them off with a hug and wish that they do not have to ever do more than a drill against intruders, that they will not be shot. We tell them to be kind and hope that we offer them a safe home to come to where they will get the protection we can advocate for when others may not be kind to them.
I get so annoyed when I hear people making fun of millenials - they are entitled, they expect, they want, they dare to question the status quo, they want to be rewarded - among them are people who do not want to contribute in any way to their own success in those areas but the vast majority of the millenials I meet are evolving everything we touch because they feel they are entitled to try, they expect to succeed, they want to do more, they question the things they see as not equal and they want to be rewarded with the promise of opportunity.
Our kids should all be like that too. The same way you expect to own a gun you should expect that our children deserve the peace of mind that they will not be killed by it, in school, in an accidental shooting. You should ask for background checks, for a waiting period, for a federal law to protect not only those of us and our children but you too. You should be the ones at the forefront asking that you not be associated with gun violence but with gun owners who understood the need to end the rhetoric for the manufacturers who deal in weapons and change it to members who understand the responsibility.
I want to arm teachers with the tools they need to teach kids to be ready for the future. We need mental health to be a priority along with healthcare because we all deserve to have help. Our schools need to be top notch not top armed.
None of this will stop everything, none of it will. If it stops one shooting then that's worth it to me, if it takes you a month to get a gun but it adds many months to a student than that is a good trade.
One of the things I try and teach my kids is that most things are not like pie, one slice doesn't mean there is one less for others. That is true for equal rights, for empowerment, for opportunity and for disagreements on policy.
I do not want to have to explain to my kids how we did not act -- I want to send my kids off to school and annoy them about homework, about dealing with the drama that will seem silly to them as adults but that consumes them as kids and most of all I want to tell them that kindness wins.
Isn't it time we stop yelling and start using one voice to demand that our children have the future we think they are entitled to - all of them ?? Isn't that something most of us learned in school, in history.
So send your kids off to school, tell them you love them and be those things in life that you want them to grow up to be - most of all kind.
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