I’m eight years old and I don’t understand what’s happening.

Yesterday I saw tanks driving down our street. Real tanks, like in the war movies my dad watches. But we’re not at war. At least I don’t think we are. The police officers looked really mean too, not like Officer Johnson who comes to our school and is nice and tells us about bike safety.

These police officers had big guns and angry faces. They looked like they wanted to hurt someone. That scared me.

What We Learned in School

In civics class, Mrs. Peterson taught us that America is supposed to help people. She said when people come here from other countries, we’re supposed to be nice to them and help them find jobs and learn English. She said that’s what made America special.

She taught us about the middle class. That’s families like mine who have enough money for a house and food and sometimes vacations, but we’re not super rich. She said America has lots of middle class families and that’s good because it means most people have what they need.

She said America is really powerful and when you have power, you’re supposed to use it to help people who don’t have as much as you do. Like how the big kids at school are supposed to help the little kids, not pick on them.

But that’s not what I see happening now.

My Friend Sarah

My friend Sarah doesn’t get lunch at school anymore. She used to get free lunch because her mom doesn’t have enough money, but they took that away. Now she just sits there during lunch time and pretends she’s not hungry.

I try to share my sandwich with her but she gets embarrassed. Yesterday she cried because her stomach was making noise in math class.

Why would grown-ups take food away from kids? We didn’t do anything wrong. Sarah is really smart and nice. She always helps me with my spelling words.

I asked my mom about it and she got really sad and said some people think it’s too expensive to feed kids at school. But my mom also said we spend way more money on tanks and planes and stuff for the military.

That doesn’t make sense to me. Shouldn’t feeding kids come first?

The Trees Are Gone

Last week they cut down all the trees in the park where I learned to ride my bike. All of them. Now it’s just dirt and stumps.

My dad said a company wanted to build something there and they got permission to cut down the trees. But those trees were really old. Older than my grandpa. They had birds living in them and squirrels and everything.

Now where will the animals live?

Mom says they’re also letting companies put more pollution in the rivers and air. That seems really dumb. Don’t the grown-ups have to breathe the air too? Don’t they want clean water?

It’s like they’re making the world dirtier on purpose. Why would anyone do that?

This President Acts Like a Bully

The president on TV reminds me of Tyler from my school. Tyler is mean to everyone. He calls people names and pushes smaller kids around and takes their lunch money.

Everyone is afraid of Tyler but nobody likes him. He doesn’t have any real friends because who wants to be friends with someone who’s mean all the time?

The president calls people bad names too. He yells at everyone. He says mean things about people who look different or talk different. He acts like he’s better than everyone else.

In school, when someone acts like that, they get in trouble. The teacher makes them apologize and sit in timeout.

But nobody makes the president sit in timeout. He just keeps being mean.

Why Is Everyone Scared to Speak Up?

What I don’t understand is why all the grown-ups act so scared of him. My dad gets really quiet when the president comes on TV. My mom looks worried all the time now.

At school, we learned that in America, the people are supposed to be in charge. The president works for us, not the other way around. So why is everyone acting like they work for him?

And why are people fighting each other instead of working together? When kids fight on the playground, the teacher makes us talk about our problems and find solutions. She says fighting doesn’t solve anything.

But all the grown-ups do is fight now. They yell on TV and say mean things about each other and nobody tries to fix anything.

Questions I Want to Ask

I have so many questions and nobody gives me good answers:

Why did we stop helping poor people in other countries? If we have so much money for tanks, don’t we have money to help people who are hungry?

Why are we being mean to people who want to come to America? Didn’t our families come from other places too?

Why are we making the air and water dirtier when we know that’s bad for everyone?

Why are we taking food away from kids at school when we have enough food for everyone?

Why is the president allowed to be a bully when we’re not allowed to be bullies at school?

Why are grown-ups fighting instead of working together to fix problems?

What I Think Should Happen

If I was in charge, I would make different choices.

I would make sure every kid gets lunch at school. Being hungry makes it hard to learn.

I would plant more trees, not cut them down. Trees are pretty and they clean the air and animals live in them.

I would be nice to people who come from other countries. I would help them learn English and find jobs, just like Mrs. Peterson said we’re supposed to do.

I would tell everyone to stop fighting and start working together. When we work together in my class, we get way more done and everyone feels better.

I would use our power to help people, not scare them. When you’re strong, you’re supposed to protect people who are weaker, not pick on them.

The World Is Already Scary

My mom says the world has always been scary and that’s just how it is. But I think grown-ups are making it scarier on purpose.

There are already bad things that happen that nobody can control. People get sick. There are storms and earthquakes. Sometimes people are born without enough food or clean water.

But those are problems we could try to fix together. Instead, the grown-ups are creating new problems. They’re being mean when they could be nice. They’re taking things away when they could be sharing. They’re fighting when they could be working together.

I don’t understand why anyone would choose to make the world scarier when it’s already scary enough.

What I Hope For

I hope the grown-ups remember what they taught us about being good to each other. I hope they remember that when you have more than someone else, you’re supposed to help them, not take even more away. I hope they stop acting like bullies and start acting like the grown-ups we need them to be.

I hope they remember that America is supposed to be the place where people are nice to each other and work together to solve problems.

I hope they fix things before I grow up, because right now, I’m kind of scared to become a grown-up if this is what grown-ups do.

KJS 2025