Peabody's Improbable History of Iraq

I remember this Mr. Peabody and his Wayback Machine cartoon on the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show from when I was a kid. I hope the cartoons our child grows up with will teach history as accurately.

Branded Baby

With every inch of public space featuring an advertisement or an inducement to buy, with an economy based around debt and overconsumption, and with a culture that refuses to challenge the lies they've been raised with at the same time that we witness our society teetering towards collapse; raising a conscious child becomes not just a biological process but an act of political necessity.

I want my child to know the names of more tree species than corporate logos. I want them to have seen an animal that wasn't on television, imprisoned in a zoo or domesticated for our amusement. I want them to care about acts of political struggle or creative expression rather than celebrity gossip. I want them to experience the rich diversity of the world and to view the monoculture of parking lots and strip malls with the same disgust as a forest clear cut. I want them to celebrate community and to reject the atomization and alienation of modern existence. I want them to live free and to struggle for those who can't.

I'm having a baby and it means I believe the future is worth fighting for.