Things that Affect Us

And yes, I am talking about Ferguson, MO, among other things.

Last week Lizzy was VIP in her classroom, which is the same thing as Child of the Week was in preschool. She made a poster about herself - and when did she get big enough to do it alone while I was in the shower? - and brought in some of her Favorite Things to share with the class.

I was her Favorite Thing for Friday (isn't that nice?), and I was 'shared' in the morning.

In the morning because in the afternoon, when they had been doing VIP Time, they had a lockdown drill. I see the necessity, and they are very sensitive about such things - they told Lizzy's group of first graders that it was "in case of a bad guy or a wild animal on school grounds" - but I really don't like that it has to be done.

Around here it's always been fire drills and earthquake drills, which only makes sense. Since the school shooting last month  a couple of districts north of ours, it also makes sense that they do lockdown drills. But I don't have to like it.

Just as I don't have to like other things I see in the news, whether they affect me and mine directly or not.

Now, as many of you know, the Hubs has had a book of short stories published, and one of those stories - Watch This - is the one I was reading on my break when the news from Ferguson was released... that the officer who shot Michael Brown was not going to be indicted.

There are eerie parallels between Laston's story and this news from Missouri, and while I don't know what particular events Laston was alluding to in his story (if any), I still got chills. And although I don't approve of committing or inciting violence to get your point across - either across the nation in real life or across a stadium in the story - I can certainly understand it. I understood the urge to commit violence in 1992 as well.

I did not act on that urge.

Peaceful protests I'm all for, and I applaud anyone who is protesting peacefully, but rioting and looting seems counterproductive. I can't say how I would feel if it was closer to home for me, but knowing myself fairly well I think - I like to think - that I would do what I am doing now... writing about it, signing petitions against these sorts of miscarriages of justice (yes, I said it, I think not even indicting the police officer is wrong), boosting the signal.

I feel like it's all I can do and remain true to myself.