3-Year-Old Agitator Steals Show in Indianapolis

[kas125]

INDIANAPOLIS — The littlest protester cannot count past 10 and gets his alphabet mixed up. But in the midst of civic strife, Sheadon O’Day, a 3-year-old agitator, has mastered one thing that really matters inside the Statehouse here: screaming “Save Daddy’s job!” With that and his blond hair and blue eyes, one could say that he stole the show, even from the large men in hard hats yelling into their megaphones.

All he had to do was show up.

“Hey little dude, you’re awesome!” a construction worker told Sheadon as he ambled about — he is barely beyond his toddler days, after all — hoisting a large sign over his head that said, “Don’t Tread on Me!” The old and often-invoked populist slogan took on a laughable double meaning as Sheadon bumped about a crowd of hundreds, lost in a sea of long adult legs.

Occasionally Sheadon’s father, Jeremy O’Day, who sets concrete with the local laborers’ union, would hoist him on his shoulders so he could see what was going on outside the chamber of the House of Representatives, where Republican and Democratic lawmakers are in a standoff over limits to public and private collective bargaining rights, among a host of other things.

Con't at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/us/26indianapolis.html?_r=2

[Orrex]

1. Click here if you thought that said "3-year-old alligator"

That would have been a cool story.


Still, good for Sheadon!

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Me too!

I first read that as 'alligator.'

Teabaggers - who probably think they invented the damned thing - are gonna be pissed that someone outside their ranks is using the slogan on the Gadsden flag.

[GoCubsGo]

5. Let 'em be pissed.

It's about time the ignoramuses understood what that term really means.

[Veruca Salt]

7. +1

The teabaggers misuse of the slogan and the Gadsden flag appalled me on a visceral level.

[demmiblue]

3. :click:

[kickysnana]

22. +1

[gateley]

4. How adorable! And good for Jeremy! nt

[underpants]

6. "cannot count past 10 and gets his alphabet mixed up" Oh I thought it was about Tea Baggers

as cute as this is I have to say that I purposely shield my daughter from having to go to political events.

Yes I included mention of her in an op-ed but that was not making her go or force feeding her my ideals.

Just saying.

[starroute]

8. What's the point of having kids if you can't feed them your ideals?

Us progressives have to perpetuate the species or we're in danger of dying out.

[underpants]

18. All I am saaaaying....

is if we are right and they know to appreciate facts they will come to it themselves


that and the "there were no possessions" thing :-)

[Brickbat]

10. Do you take her to church?

[underpants]

17. Actually we have plans to go tomorrow

other than that we do take her to my wife's "home" church on Easter

Recently the experiences there have been weird and the results of Fox News stereotypes that the locals have voluntarily assumed

[Brickbat]

19. How is that not force feeding ideals?

[kas125]

11. Wow, really? It's always a moment of pride for me when

my kids (and the youngest just turned 20) choose to join me in protesting. I'm not sure if they'd do it now if they hadn't grown up going with me. I think in our own ways, we each "force feed" our ideas on our kids, simply by living as their examples, whether we take them with us to protest or not.

[MedleyMisty]

12. I know I learned a lot from my mother by example

She's never had any particular ideology, but she modeled compassion and empathy and thinking for yourself and freedom from socially imposed roles. And I love her for that.

[underpants]

16. Right exactly they choose it

that is what I am talking about

[kas125]

21. They choose it now because they were "force fed" being

anti war and protesting when they were little. I remember one of them asking me, "I know I can't ask Santa for any war toys, but is it okay to ask him for the Ninja Turtle Van?" I guess I "forced" my views on them from the time they were born. But since it was my job to teach them right from wrong, I do not think that was a bad thing, it's what parents are supposed to do. Like I told my kids, if they didn't need parents to teach them what they should or shouldn't do, they'd have hatched out of an egg knowing all they need to know like a turtle. I'd hate to see what they'd have turned out like if I hadn't "force fed them my ideals."

[Brickbat]

9. My kids grew up on union rallies, political protests and anti-war marches. It's a lot of fun.

[jillan]

13. LOVE it!

[ClarkUSA]

14. Teabaggers must be pissed we're turning their fav motto back on them.

The Koch Party, formerly known as the GOP, has stirred up quite the hornets' nest, haven't they? The Midwest will be turning blue in 2012 and beyond if this keeps up.

[onethatcares]

15. kids learn what they live and

what could be better than learning about equality for all?

For some reason they get taught to share, share, share, then they get mind slapped and told that everything belongs to them and not to share.

Is it any wonder we have so many sickos running around taking what they feel belongs only to them?

[Shagbark Hickory]

20. Ah the oldest trick in the nut bagger book. Glad it was put to good use.