Student Protest in Purdy

Driving home last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see a group of high school kids protesting the militaristic crackdown on immigrants by ICE. I honked like crazy.

I was disappointed to see many commenters on social media complaining about the “kids skipping school” and being “coerced by teachers” to protest. They said the kids knew nothing about the issue and were victims of indoctrination.

If that’s true, then the public school district did a good job with my indoctrination. I had a keen interest in the presidents and spent hours reading through the encyclopedia about each one. My dad, an enlisted Navy sailor, sold encyclopedias door-to-door on weekends. That’s also how we got our vacuum.

By the second grade, I was closely following the presidential election in “My Weekly Reader.” The April 1968 issue featured a large picture of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had just been assassinated. I was so impressed with MLK that I did like my friend Adley and cut out the picture to paste it on the cover of my homework folder.

I brought the folder home and showed my mom all my week’s work. A few hours later, my dad came home and made a beeline for the fridge to get a beer. Then, the folder caught his eye. Born and raised in rural Arkansas, my father was not a fan of the Reverend.

He told me to tell my n***** loving teacher that my dad was the one who killed MLK, and he was proud of it.

By age 14, I was taking the bus to downtown Seattle to volunteer for the Jimmy Carter campaign. I never supported any of the Republican candidates Dad admired. By the time I graduated from high school, I had finally found the courage to let him know just what I thought of Ronald Reagan.

My point is, don’t assume kids don’t know how they feel. That these students felt empowered enough to believe they could make a difference in this world gives me hope for the future.

I’d even be happy to see conservative kids protesting. But I wouldn’t blow my horn.

John Pat Kelly, Wauna