One of my twins read George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 in Senior Lit class. We live with openness and transparency in our house. She said, “Not to freak you out, Mama, but this strange devotion to a cult leader and silencing of other viewpoints, is happening right now!” We talked about that for a while. She continued, “Some people live in fear of AI.” So we discussed the virtues and defects of artificial intelligence and what might happen over time. She holds an innate fear of how we will lose control over our own personal lives. I appreciate how she says this while still living at home and being a respectful teen and how I can see her location on Life360.

1984: It’s a great novel to read during the spookiest time of the year: Election season. As an educated educator and her mama, I was proud of her for holding a global worldview of the novel.
{We purchased the edition which supports the Orwell estate because public domain has made it far too easy for people to benefit from the classic works of authors who died years ago.}

Some of my daughter’s friends are 17 and too young to vote but have a platform on social media and are using their platform to talk about the issues closest to their hearts. They are informed voters even before they are old enough to vote. If you have teenagers, what do you talk about in this election season? What about your kids who are ages 12 or 11?

What will our country look like on November 6? What do we hope for the future of our country?
We talked for a while about what the novel 1984 depicts for readers, author’s purpose, and how Orwell could read the culture to make predictions and depict things like mass surveillance, invasion of privacy, and dangerous spread of misinformation on a catalyst scale. Sometimes developing thematic ideas is easier in conversation. I have used that in my own classroom to ask pairs or trios to discuss, and they are learning how to formulate a theme in a more fluid way.

And then I was thinking:  I’m so glad I have raised an educated voter! She just turned 18 and is extremely knowledgeable about all the issues and how the country is structured under different types of government. The perils of authoritarianism are real. We must assert our voices and vote.

All 3 of my daughters frequently talk about the culture we are living in, how I was raised, how it’s not the 1980s any longer (literally, it’s 40 years later), and what it looks like to live in our world while still raising a kind, respectful, hopeful human being who will contribute positively to our society.

This really is a moment of re-envisioning what our future looks like in this country. What country do you want your great-grandchildren to inherit?

I think of my great-grandfather Pieter who was a Dutch man of incredible character. Pieter was the head of police in Dutch East Indies (c.1949 post-independence renamed Indonesia) as WWII exploded on their shores in 1942. What did Pieter imagine would happen? How could he stop the cyclone from churning? How could he alter the momentum of the events which transpired before, during, and after?

Like many leaders, Pieter was swept into the war, one of thousands imprisoned during war under the harshest of conditions, in a war which consumed most of the world for the better part of seven years. 1942 was the halfway point. Poland was invaded in 1939, and surely Pieter realized the war would arrive in other places.

Reading about the groans and labor pains of that time and finding parallels to our current world is a valuable ability. It was his daughter Diny, my Oma, who was brave enough to move from the Netherlands to the United States, when my mother was 11 years old.

I often think of those who have gone before me for a reason: they were also people of great faith and courage and held strong ideals and nurtured relationships. They knew the power of hard work and kindness. It would behoove us to review our history and not willingly choose the same mistakes again.

What do we want our country to look like after November 5th?