Animals to people: "Only YOU can prevent war."

Hart, Tami and I had a really good day of tabling at Bowie HS today. I'd salvaged some old calendars with wonderful photos of wild animals from around the world and made a poster with some messages from the animals' points of view. Student responses to the question that related to the poster got right to the point: wars create loss of habitat through building of military bases, outright destruction of habitat and food sources, injury and death from radiation and other weapons like land mines, and people turning to crime like selling elephant tusks because of war-related effects on communities.  One student also mentioned that the proliferation of weapons caused by war also can lead to more poaching of wild animals, which surely is true.

 The Penny Poll results showed the highest priority for Health Care at 26% of the budget, Education at 24%, the Environment at 21%, 11% for the Military, 9% for Humanitarian Aid and 9% for NASA. During our tabling, a JROTC squad practiced marching maneuvers right outside the windows from our spot. Several students who visited the table and did the t-shirt challenge mentioned plans that included military service, so we were glad to be able to talk with them and offer them some alternative information.

Because MLK Day is coming up, our reflection question related to that.  Many students mentioned boycotts in their responses, but didn't mention specifics when it came to what is or could be boycotted now.   We will have to explore this more in future tablings.

  

We had to smile at this school banner. A spoof, perhaps, on the current US president?

I liked seeing this bumpersticker on our intrepid driver, Tami's car!