Occupy L.A. & Questioning Authority

This past Friday we had the day off because of Veteran's Day, so we decided to take the train downtown to visit the Occupy L.A. protest in front of City Hall.  This was mainly Tori's idea, but I thought it might be a good civics lesson and memory for the kids.

Side-note: I have a lot of great memories of time I spent with my grandma in Texas, but one of my very favorites is taking her to a huge anti-Iraq war protest when she came to visit me and my sister in San Francisco.  Now that was really something to see, with hundreds of thousands of people pouring into the streets and marches and artwork and music.  Imagine you're an 80-year-old woman who was raised on a dairy farm in East Texas and your crazy granddaughters make you push your way onto a ridiculously crowded train to see it all.  Actually, she loved it because of the great people-watching!

Anyway, I think Tori maybe had some visions of a big movement with a drum circle and people passionate about their cause.  Instead we found lots of tents and a scattering of people, but most of them were clearly homeless and mentally ill.  Tori was really disappointed about the whole arrangement.  Still, we took this photo to remember the occasion.

Before we arrived at the protest, I tried explaining to Zadie what a protest was and why sometimes people decide to protest against a government or a company or whatever the case may be.  But I didn't delve into too much detail because I realized I didn't want to plant any crazy ideas about questioning the authority figures in her life.  I have enough trouble without her deciding she wants to start protesting her parents' rule.

And I speak from personal experience on this because when I was about 10 years old I remember spending a Saturday morning watching Bridge on the River Kwai and being so deeply moved by the hunger strike of the main character that I was inspired to start my own hunger strike.  My cause?  I demanded that my mom make me pancakes and vowed not to eat anything until she did.  I gave in around late afternoon, I think.