On my way out of Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve last week, I came upon this car. And I knew I had to get a picture of it. I agree with the sentiment, but that isn’t the reason I was photographing it. I have a great interest in people who are ostentatious about their political beliefs. As you must know, I have extremely strong political opinions. Yet I would not generally put a bumper sticker on my car. It strikes me as being provocative for no good reason. I’m not the greatest driver so I don’t need to give people more reasons to hate me. But even if I see someone with 15 Tea Party bumper stickers all over his car, I’m impressed; we might disagree about everything in particular, but we at least believe in taking a strong stand.

Just after I took the picture above, a man came out of an RV that was parked across from the car. He said, “Yeah, that’s a great thing for my kids to see.” He seemed to think that I was photographing it because I was offended. Truly, until he said that, I had not even noticed that “Fuck Monsanto” was printed various times on the car. I smiled at the man and walked away. But I was no longer thinking about Monsanto!

A lot of people I like very much have the same belief that the RV man had: the rest of the world should be looking out for their kids. I don’t accept this—at least not in the way they mean it. Understand: I have a fondness for kids that I think is a lot more respectful than that of most adults. I interact with kids as though they are equals. And that means that I don’t try to hide uncomfortable parts of life from them: death, sex, or naughty words. In my experience, if you answer these kinds of questions honestly, children will honestly find that they aren’t that interested and move on to another subject.

The problem with coarse language comes up because, as much as I try not to, they sometimes slip out. But the situation usually goes like this. I throw in an unintended “fuck” into the middle of a sentence. The parent suddenly stiffens as though I just accidentally revealed that his beloved mother was dead. And as a result, the child who was blissfully unaware of what I said starts looking around eagerly, “What did I miss?!” Because the kid knows it must have been good or else daddy would not be freaking out.

But I do try because I have personal relationships with these people. I don’t at all understand why I should give a shit about the children of the RV guy. The truth is that I would never print a coarse word like “Fuck” on my car. It rude. But that’s my sense of social obligation. I’m sure the “Fuck Monsanto” guy feels that the issue he is highlighting is important enough to be provocative. But where did this guy in the RV get the idea that his right to keep naughty words out of his children’s vocabulary trumps everyone else’s rights?

In this country we have a distorted view of parental rights. There is this idea that no expense is too great if it is for our children. But they aren’t our children. They are their children. In addition, their children already know those words. They even know how to spell them, “F U C K, tell her I’m fine.” I think I learned that in the second grade. What’s more, the whole idea of shielding kids is offensive. They are growing. They are learning. And Pete Townshend knew the truth: the kids are alright.