Mommy, what's abolition?

[adrian_turtle]

We went to the Boston rally against ICE last Saturday. One of my study partners asked afterwards if it made me fired up with solidarity, and inspired to resist more strongly? Not really. Not this time. But my presence made the crowd a bit bigger, and I hope a bigger crowd inspired others incrementally more.

I saw a kid near the T station, on the edge of the crowd, and heard her ask, "Mommy, what's ab abol abolish?" She was of an age to be fairly new to reading, so she had to sound out the word on the "Abolish ICE" signs. Her mother said abolishing was when you got rid of something completely by making a law against it, like the abolition of slavery. It made me wonder about little kids tagging along when when Bostonians marched for abolition in the 19th century.

Comments

[otter]

Good to hear parents offering clear, simple, factual answers to kids who ask hard questions.

[silveradept]

That is an excellent and age-appropriate answer, well done grownup.

[adrian_turtle]

Black family, so the mother had probably been thinking about it for some time. (Like my parents had been thinking about how to tell me about the Holocaust for years before they actually did.)