When a national organization for gun violence prevention retweeted a pic of my baby and me at a Labor Day rally, gun fetishists trolled me for a few hours. Their common talking point – I was “indoctrinating” my child. My reply: teaching my children to be politically active is called “parenting.”

If ever you find yourself in a philosophical position where the most logical argument against an opponent is to claim they should not teach their own beliefs to their own children…well, you should probably step away from the keyboard and meditate or take the dog for a walk or wash a load of dishes or rub oil ever so lovingly on your most favorite gun.

In my catty Twitter exchanges I considered calling it “patriotic parenting.” But I shied away because I often feel “patriot” has been co-opted by a certain ideology  with which I don’t wish to be associated.

But what could be more patriotic than showing up for a cause you care about? Spending your leisure time working with our country’s political structure to make laws and policies that align more with those beliefs is exactly what our country calls for, what it needs.

So yeah, I’m a parent, an activist, and a fucking patriot.