Brandy and Sarah, 2008

Brandy and Sarah, 2008. From the series Band Camp.
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When troubling news makes it to my 11 year old’s ears–and this is happening more and more as she gets older –my daughter will view current events with a searing clarity that defies all modern conventions and she will inevitably say, “but why don’t we change that?” And I will say “well honey, we should…” and I will pause and something along the lines of “it’s complicated,” will come out of my mouth and I realize that that is really not good enough. Because “it’s complicated” generally means that money has skewed the argument away from the desires of a majority towards the desires of a few, or even just the desires of one. The injustice in this has never been more apparent than it is through the eyes of a child. But in the last few weeks, we have seen some incredible badassery coming from children, teens, asking these same kinds of questions in the real world, to people that have real power and not accepting “it’s complicated” as an answer. As I watch this, I am filled with this sense of pride and hopefulness for our future in the face of some pretty sobering events because when you see the world as a child sees it, it’s actually not that complicated at all. .