Think about the small girls

This morning, I had to take myself off to the shops to do some routine shopping to stop me thinking about all the ramifications for the US, the UK and Europe of what happened last night. I've been up half the night and can't look at or listen to the television, radio or read the newspapers right now as I am so very depressed.

However as I was walking home, I started to think about the messages the result will convey for lots of young girls in the US - especially black children - and then got in, opened my macbook and saw this.

The Problem We All Live With (1963) by Norman Rockwell

oil on canvas, oil on canvas, 36 x 58 inches

Illustration for LOOK, January 14, 1964. 

Norman Rockwell Museum Collections. ©NRELC, Niles, IL.

(do click the title to read about the artwork and the story behind it)

...and I thought again of 

• all those little girls whose hopes will have been dashed, 
• all those young girls who might now become very ambivalent about the risks of becoming pregnant and child-bearing in the future; and 
• all those mothers and grandmothers who are feeling very, very let down - again!

It was good to stop and think about what it's like for others.

I know it's a LOT more complicated than that - and that there are LOTS of other very valid perspectives on different issues across the country and between different groups - and that people tend to vote for what's best for them and their families

.....but please just spare a minute to think about what it's like today for the small girls growing up in the current prevailing culture in the US

Plus how artwork is a way of highlighting contemporary issues.

So - having written this - I'm now going to spend the rest of the day assessing grant applications and trying not to think of all things that might now worry me - if I let them....

P.S. Ruby Bridges was born the same year as me. We're 70 this year.

She created the Ruby Bridges Foundation to promote “the values, tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences.”

My message is really that racism has no place in the hearts and minds of our children.
Ruby Bridges

14th November is "Walk to School Day". 

Reference

• The Problem We All Live With | Wikipedia
• The Norman Rockwell Museum
• Norman Rockwell | Google Arts and Culture
• Norman Rockwell + The Problem We All Live With | Learn why a controversial painting became a symbol of the American civil rights movement | Kennedy Center