End of a Journey and Dawning of a New Day

Thus ends our journey of politics and hope this year with the kids, we attended the Election night bash at the fairgrounds here in town. We went with some friends, met more friends there (all with kids) and saw many many people we knew as well. The best moment of course, was when they announced that Obama had won the presidency, and you can see Mackenzie's reaction here. It was definitely a "where were you when...." kind of time to remember, which is why I wanted to be somewhere that the kids would remember the excitement and electricity of all of those people celebrating together. The tears streaming down the faces of black and brown families around us, and seeing what it means to so many people. Then we settled in to watch the results of local races (many are still too close to call, a couple of days later, we may have to wait for recounts even) and wait for the speeches.
I thought McCain's acceptance speech was extremely gracious and moving. I kept thinking "this is the McCain that would've given Obama a run for his money" Not the McCain who was trying to defend the choice of Palin, or the McCain repeating platitudes about Joe the Plumber, but the McCain who is a dedicated public servant to the United States of America. I'm certainly glad that Obama won, but it did make me sad to see how the Republican party was able to drag McCain all over the place away from his previously espoused values, and essentially make a mockery of his years in the Senate.

But thankfully, the very choices that drove moderates away from McCain ushered in the historic victory of Obama. Although some found his acceptance speech too dry, I really loved his emphasis on where we'll be going now, what all of us will need to be doing. It was not a gloating speech, but a celebratory and roll-up-our-sleeves kind of speech. I think it's exactly what our country needs, and I hope he can continue to inspire the very same people who worked tirelessly to get him elected to come to the service of their country as well in this time of need (well, I hope he can inspire everyone to do so, of course!) This energy and momentum can and should continue!

Unschooling and Older Kids

This topic came up on a parenting board that I frequent - what does unschooling look like when your kids get older. I thought some folks who read this blog might also be interested in this topic. I used to really enjoy reading about people who had unschooling older kids in the 12 - 18 year old age range, and one day I turned around and I had one too!

So what does a day look like for an unschooling 12 year old?? There's the daily stuff - taking care of pets (guinea pigs, chickens, cats) and helping out around the house, kitchen, or garden. Today he had some robotics programming to do for our FLL Robotics Team, then we took a bike ride down to a local park where there was a big apple tree I wanted to gather apples from. While I was taking Asa to classes, he probably played some Spore, the big evolutionary computer game that about every tween and teen boy we know loves. It's such an interesting game concept that National Geographic did a documentary on it. A clip is here.
Some younger boys from the neighborhood came over in the afternoon, and he showed them (safely!) how to set leaves on fire with a magnifying glass. There's this little troupe of boys around here who love to come over. He plays Yu Gi Oh with them or pirates or swords or imaginary games, it's very cute to watch him interacting with these littler guys and having a good time with them. I told him I'd pay for him to go take the Red Cross babysitting course, he'd be a great babysitter and I said he should advertise that he "speaks Bionicle and Lego".

He and I walked down to the store together to get some stuff for dinner, and then while I was cooking he read the NY Times online to me. He's especially very interested in all the political stuff right now. In the afternoon, he had watched me fill out my ballot (Oregonians all vote by mail-in ballot)and discussed the ballot issues and candidates with me. He had read through the voter's pamphlet and was pointing out some of the candidates he liked. In the evening, he hung out with Wayne as he filled in his ballot as well. They lay by the fireplace and talked about the issues. Wayne and I had marked up our voter's pamphlets with our personal answers on ballot measures and candidates, so we discussed the ones we differed on and then he went on to finish up his voting. I love that Mackenzie feels like such a big part of the political process, from going to rallies to voting, he's been actively watching and reading about everything that's transpired in this amazing election year.

So that's one day in the life of a 12-year-old unschooler. Every day is different of course. We do karate together on some days, have robotics team meetings and practice on others. So much of his days now are up to him, what he wants to be interested and involved in. It's a bit weird for me to start taking these steps back as he moves more and more in his own directions without really asking for much input from me. It's also cool to watch as he matures and grows into a person I really like hanging out with and even talking politics with (I can't say that about everyone!)

Political Football

So there we were as a family, clustered around the screen, rooting for the home team. Yelling at a good hit, clutching our heads when we were on the defensive... Yeah, those political debates are doozies....

Seriously. Our family takes politics seriously. We have discussions around the dinner table, over breakfast and tea and cards and anywhere else we happen to be. We email each other commentaries or funny spoofs (Tina Fey's Sarah Palin is a big hit around here: "We're going to ask ourselves what a Maverick would do in this situation, and then ya know, we'll do that.") and of course stay up to watch the debates, the post-debate coverage, and the pundits and pickers-over afterwards. In a time when political apathy has been the norm among young people for so long, it's exciting that not only young voters, but those too young to vote are so interested in this election and in the political process.

Jody writes about her experience already voting with her son. We have to wait a few more days until our ballots arrive, but we've been reading through the voter's pamphlet already. Mackenzie told me he wants to watch me vote for Obama, a historic occasion by anyone's measurement. But beyond the history in the making, he knows my reasons for choosing candidates, and not just the Big Cheese for Prez candidates either, but judges and representatives and our own very tight mayoral race, which will have a huge influence on the direction of our city in the next few years (we have one candidate who is openly for sprawl and development over any kind of environmental sanity). It will be a moment to remember all of his life, the first time he became involved in the political decision-making that is the cornerstone of our country's existence. It makes all of that reading about the American Revolution come to life when you exercise that right to vote.

The Moments You Remember

I don't usually post about politics on this blog, leaving the ranting and raving to my blog on sustainability issues. But regardless of your political party affiliation, or even the country that you live in, last night was a momentous occasion. It's not often that you stand in the course of time knowing that this moment will be written into the history books. I can remember twice in my childhood when my parents told me to remember a moment, that history was being made. One was the moon landing, and though I was only three I remember it clearly, perhaps because of my parents' solemn pronouncement and the fact that everyone was unaccustomedly glued to the television set. I can still see the room clearly in my head, where people were seated, the fuzzy black and white imagines on the old console TV. The second was when Nixon resigned, and my mom pulled the car over and turned the radio up, and again I can tell you exactly what road we were driving on.

So as Obama began his speech on the eve of his garnering the delegates to clinch the presidential nomination, I uttered the same words to my kids: Pay attention now, history is in the making this moment. Of all the white and "Western" nations in this world, America is nominating a black man to aspire to our highest office. Enough of us (though admittedly not all of us) have moved beyond the issue of a person's skin color, and choose to judge their candidate on his abilities alone. Of course, if Hillary had been the nominee, another kind of history would've also been made. A woman candidate as a major party nominee would've been a first for America, though not for the rest of the Western world. This moment is a living proof that whatever else may be wrong with our country in the moment, we are still striving towards a better world for all of our many diverse citizens.

And all of us, kids and adults alike, will remember where we were this moment, forever.