Even though my two eldest daughters are politically aware, they usually seek my advice when they vote. They would call me when they were completing their absentee ballots and we would discuss each race and candidate. But quite frankly, most of the time, I had to remind them to put a stamp on the ballot and mail it. I asked myself "What kind of activist am I if I have to work this hard to get my kids to follow through with their vote?"
My kids have attended protests with me but they didn’t necessarily like doing it. My younger ones would just die if one of their friends saw them protesting or planting signs for candidates. They "get it" but would prefer that their activism be limited to watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.
Even though my two eldest daughters are politically aware, they usually seek my advice when they vote. They would call me when they were completing their absentee ballots and we would discuss each race and candidate. But quite frankly, most of the time, I had to remind them to put a stamp on the ballot and mail it. I asked myself “What kind of activist am I if I have to work this hard to get my kids to follow through with their vote?” My kids have attended protests with me but they didn’t necessarily like doing it. My younger ones would just die if one of their friends saw them protesting or planting signs for candidates. They “get it” but would prefer that their activism be limited to watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.
When my 21 year old daughter studied abroad, I took possession of her laptop and changed her homepage to rawstory.com. When she came home and took her laptop back, she said "Mom, I like Rawstory but I kind of miss Brangelina." In 2004, when she was just 18 and voting for the first time, her voter registration was illegally changed to Republican by a company hired by the RNC. We filed a complaint with the state but my daughter never returned the investigator’s phone calls. She was too busy with homework and campus life.
Yesterday, everything changed.
