She's 10 years old and worried,
caught up in thinking about the futurefrightened of the darkness she sees ahead.
While reading her chapter books and dreaming about horses,
she can't help but see and hear the news
the grown-ups are watching on the television.
At 10 years old, her concerns should only be about
what to wear, her friends, her hairstyle, her homework,
but she's smart, she pays attention, and she cares.
She wonders at the threat of global warming.
She wonders how her paternal grandmother can support
a man named Trump who brags about assaulting women,
how he acts like a schoolyard bully
calling anyone who opposes him names.
She listens as Noni complains about taxes,
about how the voting was rigged
and how she cheered the rebellion in January
where police were viciously attacked.
"Why are Republicans acting like this?" she asks Pop Pop
She wonders how her paternal grandmother can support
a man named Trump who brags about assaulting women,
how he acts like a schoolyard bully
calling anyone who opposes him names.
She listens as Noni complains about taxes,
about how the voting was rigged
and how she cheered the rebellion in January
where police were viciously attacked.
"Why are Republicans acting like this?" she asks Pop Pop
her maternal grandfather.
"I'm just a little girl," she says,
"what can I do about these things?"
"YOU can change the world!" her pop pop says.
He tells her a tale of his childhood
growing up in a Pennsylvania factory town
where the air was filled with soot
from factory smoke stacks fired with coal,
where the local creek that should have held trout
instead was orange and stank of sulfur
from the factory’s unregulated effluent.
He tells her how unions built the middle class
and gave his father a better life,
how taxes pay for the roads, bridges,
firemen, police and schools,
the things we all depend upon.
And he tells her how when he was young
that you could be denied service in a restaurant
simply because of the color of your skin.
"I'm just a little girl," she says,
"what can I do about these things?"
"YOU can change the world!" her pop pop says.
He tells her a tale of his childhood
growing up in a Pennsylvania factory town
where the air was filled with soot
from factory smoke stacks fired with coal,
where the local creek that should have held trout
instead was orange and stank of sulfur
from the factory’s unregulated effluent.
He tells her how unions built the middle class
and gave his father a better life,
how taxes pay for the roads, bridges,
firemen, police and schools,
the things we all depend upon.
And he tells her how when he was young
that you could be denied service in a restaurant
simply because of the color of your skin.
"We were young, like you,” Pop Pop tells her,
“but enough of us wondered
what can we do about these things?
So we spoke up! We said "Enough!"
And we found that together we were strong.
We learned that one individual can make a difference!"
Pop Pop gives her books to prove
that she, just a ‘little girl,’
Can make a difference.
Books about Greta, Malala,
Amanda, Ruby and Claudette.
All young women who were brave
and willing to say "Enough!"
"But Pop Pop," she asks.
"What about old men like Kevin McCarthy?
They have so much power!"
Pop Pop laughs,
"that corrupt old fool couldn't hold a candle to you!
You are the storm coming he fears the most!
But pay attention. It will be up to you
and others like you,
to fix what he is breaking."
"that corrupt old fool couldn't hold a candle to you!
You are the storm coming he fears the most!
But pay attention. It will be up to you
and others like you,
to fix what he is breaking."
Another Jigsaw effort. Words provided by old high school acquaintance Joseph Miller. Words are global warming, Trump, Republicans, taxes, voting, rebellion, Pennsylvania, Kevin, January, unions.
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