Lemony Snicket, the unlucky narrator of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” (and pen name for the real-life Daniel Handler), has posted 13 of his observations on Occupy Wall Street for kids. Snicket posted them on the Web site Occupy Writers, which launched last week as a means for writers to show their support of the Occupy movement.
The cover of “Lemony Snicket: The Lump Of Coal.” In the mid-19th century, it was believed that if you were poor, it was because you did bad things, so poor kids were punished by only getting coal in their stocking. (AP)Written in Snicket’s trademark black comedic voice, the observations range from the instructive to the cheeky: “People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter — it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices,” he writes.As kids continue to watch theOccupy Wall Street movementunfold around the world, Snicket isn’t the only one trying to teach them what anti-capitalism means.
Some parents are instructing kids by taking them to the scene of the protests. Kirby Desmarais told parenting blog “The Stir” that she took her 18-month-old daughter Georgiah to Wall Street, carrying a sign: “This child can’t afford health care,” because she thinks kids can reinvigorate the protest. Desmarais is just one of many moms who belong to the subset movement, Parents for Occupy Wall Street. On Columbus Day, more than a dozen children spent their day off helping out at Wall Street.
Another parent in New York decided the best method of instruction would be the protesters themselves. After asking those camping out at Liberty Square to explain the movement to a six-year-old, this was the very earnest response:
If black comedy or exposure to the protesters doesn’t help kids grasp the difficult economic issues at stake, MTV2’s kid-show sketch “Wonder Showzen” just might.
Long before there was Occupy Wall Street, there was “Wonder Showzen,” a show in which a very young, very intrepid reporter walks Wall Street and asks men in suits as they pass by: “Who did you exploit today?” among other probing but oh-so-charming questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment