Miss.
The other day the children and I were spending a quiet afternoon at home.
Tom
and Jane were playing with their trains getting in their way to
young to know how to do things with other people
always doing
hungry
dinners ready
and Rose you have to wait like we all do a
lot more than they did brother he knows what trains are
but he doesn't know how to run them much better.
Not because you don't even know the little lad only half the way. Well.
That makes even when you don't know too many rules.
Sometimes we do have rules we don't need
but for everything we do together we have to have some rules
that we don't always have right.
Sometimes it seems like that but that wasn't so in the game of hide
and seek we have with your friend. I mean you know that.
Having a way to do things means having a rule.
And we had to have a way of choosing someone to be it.
We only had fun playing together
when we all followed the same rules all except Rose.
She's too young to understand the rules.
So we had to let her play as she pleased
rules are just ways of doing things together.
The good if it's when we understand rules and agree to them. We have the most fun.
The and that's why when Tom tried to help me he was spoiling the game for Ronnie
and for the rest of us too we told him if he wanted to play he
had to stick to the rules we all agree.
So you see we didn't just go ahead and play.
We had to follow the rules of the game.
Of course there's more to playing the game than just following the rules.
Sometimes we had to make up new rules for new situations
we found that out
when Ronnie tricked me into thinking someone was near the garage
and the
joke was on me and I thought I was pretty clever
but your friend who was caught didn't think so.
Everyone had his own opinion
and we couldn't agree some
of us thought it was a fair trick at first
after talking it over though we all agreed it wouldn't be fair to anyone who was
hiding where the stone fell so we made
a new rule that we couldn't throw stones
and sometimes we have to change our own rules.
You remember how angry you got Tom
when Jane ran into the street we had a rule against it because cars going by made
it dangerous. Jane said we didn't need that rule because the street was closed
and there were no cars. She said The room was good when the Street was open
but
when things changed the rules have to be changed to fit
when we saw it was safe to run there.
We agreed with doing it
and we knew we could change the rules as long as the street was closed
only Rose kept insisting that we couldn't change rules.
That's because she's too young to understand people who understand rules know
that they can change when we play it may seem as if we're just running around
but in games or anything else we do with other people.
We have to agree on rules and understand them.
We have to make new rules for new situations and we have to change old rules
when they aren't good anymore.
Then late. In the game we needed lots of rules in order to play as we roll a leak.
We don't just run our own way.
Sure we can get games out roll Why do we have rules about the many other things.
The same reason we have rules and games so we can get things done.
It's not a motive.
Thing A ruling is a kind of tracking some flight.
Well in some ways we have safety rules for getting across the street
and they help us get where we want to go just like track help a train.
We have to have laws so we can all get where we want to go like
stopping for red light to let others pass.
We agree on ways of doing things together that will be fair to. All of us.
Otherwise we wouldn't get anywhere.
Yes Tommy really is a kind of a track to help us get where we want to go.
But people are trains.
People make the tracks they follow the laws we
make are just like the rules you made in the game we hadn't agreed on what to do
about throwing stones and the game couldn't go on until we did agree.
And we all had our say we were able to find a way that would be fair to everyone.
That's the way we get good rules and good laws.
Do you remember the traffic jams we used to have on Charles St Our town was growing
fast so much traffic was going in different directions that there was always a jam.
Sometimes it would take forever to get to town.
Well we people had to do something about it
and just like you got together in the game we got together at a town meeting
and said what we thought should be done.
Mr Harris thought we could have a policeman at the corner a lot of us disagree
and just like in the game.
It's only when we get up and talk that our interests are represented.
Mr Johnson suggested we make a rule that traffic could go only one way
and Charles three after he finished talking we
voted
and most of us agreed with Mr Johnson Well we made Charles Street a one way street
and clear the traffic. You see.
Laws are the rules that people make and then live by
and we all want to have a say about how we live all over the country we live in
different ways and work at different jobs.
We have our own needs and our own problems.
There are too many thousands and millions of us to go to a meeting.
So in order to make sure
that we can all have our say we have the right to vote for representatives people
who will speak up for us
we send them to Congress to make the laws we want.
I remember
when the river used to flood its banks every spring a lot of people lost their
homes.
Everybody nearby did what he could
that didn't stop the river for a thousand miles in a dozen states it flooded the
countryside.
The job was too big for cities
or even whole States Congress had to do something about it.
Through our representatives we decided
that what we needed was a series of dams to hold back the water
that took a lot of planning because we had to figure out what was best for all the
people living by the river in all the states.
Well we built the dams and the river was tame people needed the dams
and they made laws to get them. We know that laws don't come from nowhere.
People have to make them for themselves as we do in Congress
or in our town meetings and as you do in your game.
That's why we have to change laws the same way you had to change the rules.
And again the rules don't change by themselves when the street was closed.
You had to change the rules to fit
and people have to change laws so they will fit for instance a long time ago our
town was peaceful and the air was clean.
We had a law
that factories with big smoky chimneys had to be built on the other side of the
river. So the dirt and so it wouldn't get to the town
that worked for a while
but as time passed more factories going
and more
and even more till finally there wasn't even a breeze.
The old law wasn't good anymore. So we changed it.
We made a law against letting chim least four out dirt and dust laden smoke.
We had to change the old law and make a new one.
So we could live a better life in a cleaner city
in the old days.
Things were a lot different because life was simpler laws were simpler
but today we need different laws for different conditions.
Yes I want to do
that because then enough of what we need and what other people need
and things you do understand you do
when you're grown up you'll have a share in making laws about the way change a lot
of them.
Well if you speak up for your own needs and understand other people's rights.
You'll make good laws.
Thing.