How do you tell the kids that Grandma is in jail for resisting nuclear weapons?

April 6, 2018

Waging Nonviolence

How do you tell the kids that Grandma is in jail for resisting nuclear weapons?

by Frida Berrigan

“Our grandma is in jail,” Madeline tells a woman wrestling a shopping cart at Target.

“She went over a war fence and tried to make peace,” Seamus adds helpfully. “They arrested her, and she is in jail now.”

“Where?” the woman asks, looking from them to me in disbelief and maybe pity.

“We don’t remember,” the kids say, suddenly done with their story and ready to make passionate pleas for the colorful items in the dollar section over the woman’s shoulder.

“Georgia,” I say, but I don’t have a lot of energy to add detail to my kids’ story. They hit all the high points.

“There’s a lot going on these days,” she says. I agree, and we move on into the store and our separate errands.

I was happy not to say more at that moment, happy to avoid a sobbing breakdown at Target, happy to wrestle one little bit of normal out of a very abnormal day…

Read more- / https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/kings-bay-plowshares-resisting-nuclear-weapons-racism/

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