My Hand to God
There have been a handful of peaceniks gathering on the town plaza, fairly regularly for the past few years. My understanding is that they may be an offshoot of the Deaniacs and I don't know if they're there every day, but they are holding their signs and standing across from the Post Office, pretty much every late afternoon.
Today I walked my daughter down to get her bangs trimmed and has been our habit, we stopped by the candy store for ice cream, afterwards. Like usual, we sat on the Plaza for a few minutes to get situated, before continuing the rest of the way home. My daughter has seen the protesters in the past, but because they were just gathering as she ate, it was today that she asked what they're doing. The following was the crux of our exchange.
"They are letting people know that they're against the war. There's not a lot that somebody in Socorro can do about it, but if enough people don't like the war, it might end. They are telling people how they feel and they're trying to change people's minds."
"But, if we didn't fight the war, we wouldn't be free." She replied, remembering her lessons about the American Revolution from school. "That was a different war. There's another one happening now," I explained. "What's it about?" She wanted to know.
"That's why a bunch of people are against this war, we really don't know what it's about. In the beginning, we were told that there was a bad man who was President of another country and that he had a lot of bombs. So, we sent the army to take over his country and the soldiers arrested the bad man. Right now, he's in court for being a mean guy."
"He really was a mean guy that did bad things and hurt people, but we found out that he didn't have a lot of bombs, so the soldiers were told to stick around until the other country had elections. They've now had elections, but because they had a mean President for so long and because everybody was scared of him, they've started fighting among themselves. They didn't fight when the bad guy was in charge, but now that they're not scared, they've started fighting each other. And, because we don't want our soldiers to get between them, where they might not get hurt and it won't look like we're taking sides, right now, nobody knows what to do."
"Daddy, I've got to pee."
Today I walked my daughter down to get her bangs trimmed and has been our habit, we stopped by the candy store for ice cream, afterwards. Like usual, we sat on the Plaza for a few minutes to get situated, before continuing the rest of the way home. My daughter has seen the protesters in the past, but because they were just gathering as she ate, it was today that she asked what they're doing. The following was the crux of our exchange.
"They are letting people know that they're against the war. There's not a lot that somebody in Socorro can do about it, but if enough people don't like the war, it might end. They are telling people how they feel and they're trying to change people's minds."
"But, if we didn't fight the war, we wouldn't be free." She replied, remembering her lessons about the American Revolution from school. "That was a different war. There's another one happening now," I explained. "What's it about?" She wanted to know.
"That's why a bunch of people are against this war, we really don't know what it's about. In the beginning, we were told that there was a bad man who was President of another country and that he had a lot of bombs. So, we sent the army to take over his country and the soldiers arrested the bad man. Right now, he's in court for being a mean guy."
"He really was a mean guy that did bad things and hurt people, but we found out that he didn't have a lot of bombs, so the soldiers were told to stick around until the other country had elections. They've now had elections, but because they had a mean President for so long and because everybody was scared of him, they've started fighting among themselves. They didn't fight when the bad guy was in charge, but now that they're not scared, they've started fighting each other. And, because we don't want our soldiers to get between them, where they might not get hurt and it won't look like we're taking sides, right now, nobody knows what to do."
"Daddy, I've got to pee."