Modern Warfare

This afternoon, my library put on a Modern Warfare 2 tournament. A woman saw the flyers a couple of weeks ago and felt morally obligated to object, because she was personally opposed to all warfare. When the library justified its position, she got the Veterans for Peace involved, and they organized a phone and e-mail campaign trying to get the library to cancel the program. Our library director did some research and prepared "talking points" should there be protesters and/or media at the event. Daughter's comment on the protest: "Every teen who would come has already played the game, and their parents probably bought it for them."

Fast-forward to the actual program: 37 teens and adults played 2 vs 2 elimination rounds and had a great time! Participants had to be 17 years old or older (we checked IDs). A handful of protesters showed up, but they didn't stick around and didn't cause any trouble.

Four screens were set up back-to-back, so opoposing teams couldn't see each other's "reality", and each team had two players at a time. As players were eliminated, the next member of the team stepped up to take his place and the scorekeeper adjusted the team's rank. Women also competed.

I'm interested in the debrief - will find out Tuesday how the organizers felt, and whether they would do something like this again. We were prepared for a difficult time, but I think the protesters knew we had done our homework and they didn't push their luck.

Pace: Backstretch

Daughter is a junior now. The Small Learning Community to which she belongs had a parents' meeting this evening in advance of the school's "Back to School Night" next week. A good idea - it gave the SLC's administrators a chance to expand on this year's programs, and gave parents a chance to get to meet the core subject teachers.

The talk was all about preparing for the PSAT, SAT, ACT, and AP subject tests. Beginning now, the kids will be getting information daily about how work they do now will affect their chances of getting into a good college, and about the timeline for completing the different parts of the graduation and college application process.

The school librarian was in touch last week, saying they weren't funded this year, and asking how she could tap the public libraries to supplement what the school library can offer students. Well, our funding was cut, as well, but I think it would be politic to work with the school. I'm going to write her back and offer my services as a volunteer on Mondays.