I'm driving my son and some of his friends home from a party Friday night. They have lately been listening to a radio station that plays all rock from the 60's and 70's; very good playlist. They now know lots of the old tunes from Zep and Stones and Beatles..CCR CSNY etc. And it's fun to ride in the car with them because now they ask questions about the music and those times.Well; the CSNY song OHIO came on. They asked me about it.
Now I don't ever preach and I don't believe in indoctrinating children; that includes politically/religously/morally or anyother Y. I find that if you shut up and let them speak they will make very good arguments and choices. As soon as you preach their ears close.
So they asked and I said well; it's a song about a protest march held in Kent State where the Governor ordered the National Gaurd out to disperse the marchers and while doing that the Guard fired on the protesters and some were killed.
Dead silence. Then the questions came. Were they really killed? Were the protestors fighting with the soldiers? Why did they fire real bullets? I was surprised at the level of attention that song recieved.
I tried to be impartial but that was hard. Why are the kids shielded from these truths? They were genuinely shocked and their interest showed.
Sad that they have no background in the civil rights and peace movements in this country. All they hear is war and how important that is.