Yesterday Jack and I drove about 30 minutes north on I-15 to pick up a good friend of his for a day of fun. There are several exits we can take to get to her house.
I missed all of them.
Jack and I were too busy having a serious conversation about civil disobedience. The subject came up because he's been watching Whale Wars on the Animal Planet channel, in which the crew of the Sea Shepherd tries to thwart the efforts of whalers. Sometimes their techniques put people in danger.
While I tried to help him understand the fine line between fighting for something worth dying for and failing to use good judgment, I was walking a fine line myself--teaching Jack to understand the consequences of our actions without squelching the budding passions of a boy who will one day be a man who believes in something worth dying for.
So I balanced my "lecture" that maybe throwing stink bombs onto the deck of a Japanese whaling ship could be misconstrued and result in the firing of deadly weapons ("But the captain didn't actually die," said Jack) with stories of my grandmother, who went to Nicaragua on a peace mission the year she turned 80, and my sister Maryann, who once took a class on how to handle being arrested at demonstrations.
And we laughed at the irony that the exit where we made our u-turn was the exit for the state prison.
I hope it was worth being late for Jack's friend.
5 comments:
Cool conversation ... cooler hat!
Hey! I wrote a paper in grad school about tensions between the Sea Shephard Society and the Makah Tribe in Washington that's been trying to revive traditional whaling practices since grey whales were taken off the endangered species list...the idea was to dissect a "wedge" issue where I sympathize with both sides but they are pitted against each other--even when they don't have to be...basically Paul Shephard of the Sea Shephard is a hot-headed divisive guy who has spewed a lot of racist and stupid "arguments" and gives environmentalists a bad name...I'm not opposed to well-executed, non-violent direct actions as a last resort after diplomacy, but you might mention the difference to Jack about somebody being divisive off the bat and making a conflict a lot worse than it has to be...the Makah could have been an ally against the huge, destructive, commercial Japanese whaling industry, instead they are working with them because they've been alienated....wish I had a copy of that paper on this computer to send you! Alas...I don't....
By the way, "Writers in BA" is me, Maryann...
and yes...cool hat!
I like you and Jack and how you talk to Jack and what you and Jack talk about, etc etc.
The civil disobedience discussion has surfaced here too after G got home from India and we talked about Gandhi and MLK. Great topic for people to learn early.
Miss ya!
Thanks, Maryann. I only saw a little bit, but was suspicious of Paul Shephard's tactics/attitudes and your comment confirms my instincts. That's why I thought it was so important to bring it up with Jack. I agree with your take on effective change making.
And the way you describe the assignment you had in grad school may be exactly what I need to help students in my English 1010 classes understand one of the standard assignments they need to write (exploring facets of a question or issue rather than arguing a position).
And Jack really does look good in a hat, doesn't he!
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