Today’s question: Is it right to involve children in political demonstrations?

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – On Thursday, as the debate over the state budget was heating up inside the Capitol, just outside demonstrators were lampooning Gov. Scott Walker and fellow Republican leaders.

The small but rollicking crowd chanted, “Open for business,” as a creepy, larger-than-life Walker puppet, lumbered about the Capitol steps – the massive papier-mâché arms manipulated by a chuckling puppeteer.

The idea of the protest: The governor of Wisconsin and the Republican-controlled Legislature are the tools – or puppets – of big business, bought and paid for in particular by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and its pro-business agenda.

In the middle of the demonstration, a woman stood next to a child, each taking in the street show. The girl, maybe 6 or 7, held a Hello Kitty umbrella and wore a red “Solidarity” shirt – the kind with a drawing of a big fist, the kind of shirt the pro-union, anti-Walker crowd likes to don.

There wasn’t anything altogether unusual about a child taking part in a protest.

Thousands of children were trooped out into Madison’s snow and cold in late winter 2011, part of a massive demonstration against Walker’s controversial, public-sector collective bargaining reform legislation.

This is how USA Today described the kiddie activists:

“For parents, the protests are an opportunity for a real-life civics lesson.

‘I’m trying to teach my kids to stand up for your rights,’ said Kieran Connor, a teacher in the Sun Prairie school district who attended Saturday’s event with his wife, Cindy, and young sons, Sullivan and Finnegan.

“Finnegan, 4, was carrying a homemade sign that read, ‘My daddy is a school teacher. Stop making him sad,’” wrote USA Today’s ground reporters in the Feb. 27, 2011 article.

The story included this salient note: “Adults were split whether the kids understood the magnitude of the protests and why people had taken to the streets.”

On the other end of the political spectrum, there are the young children who march alongside their pro-life families calling for an end to abortion, or kids taking in tea party rallies railing against the government.

It happens all the time. But is it right?

And that’s today’s question:

Is it right to involve children in political issues, particularly political protest?

Tell us what you think.

Contact Kittle at mkittle@wisconsinreporter.com

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