Through the Smoke: What We’re Planting in Our Children.
- Humberto Rodriguez
- Jul 16
- 4 min read
We’re living in a time of high tension and louder-than-ever opinions.
Scroll through social media or turn on the news, and you’ll find a country divided, not just in policy, but in identity, values, and even basic truth. But while grown adults battle it out in comment sections and cable news panels, there’s a quieter, more dangerous ripple happening beneath it all: our children are watching. They are absorbing everything.
They always have.
The Seeds We Plant: History Repeats
Throughout American history, children have inherited more than just the color of their skin, the shape of their eyes, or their last names. They inherit narratives. Fears. Prejudices. Pride. Identity.
Think back to the Civil Rights era. In the South, some children were raised to believe in segregation as “tradition.” Others were taught to challenge it as unjust. Two entirely different worldviews passed down, both normalized within their homes.
The Cold War era brought different anxieties: children practiced nuclear drills under desks,
learning early that the world might end not by natural disaster, but by man’s disagreement. Parents on both sides of the political divide instilled either hyper-patriotism or deep distrust of the government. Again, same soil, different seeds.
Fast forward to post-9/11 America: some children grew up seeing Muslims as dangerous, while others were taught to see beyond fear and into nuance. The differences in what children were told, and what they experienced, shaped not just their youth, but their adulthood.
Today, we’re repeating the cycle.
Today’s Climate: Same Storm, New Clouds
Right now, children are hearing their parents scream at the TV, make comments about “those people,” or rant about politics at the dinner table. They are internalizing fear, mistrust, and anger, not just toward policies, but toward people.
If you lean conservative, you may be worried about what’s happening in schools or the loss of traditional values. If you lean liberal, you might be concerned about discrimination, inequality, or climate change. Regardless of side, these conversations, when charged with anger or fear, become emotional blueprints for your child’s worldview.
And we know that kids don’t yet have the tools to tell ideology from identity. If they hear “liberals are ruining the country,” or “conservatives are all racist,” they’re not thinking about platforms or legislation, they’re learning to distrust or even hate people.
This is not just unhealthy, it’s dangerous.
What Happens When They Grow Up?
Some children will grow out of it. They’ll go to college, travel, meet people different from them, fall in love with someone their parents wouldn’t approve of, and slowly shake off what was handed to them. That’s the beauty of human experience: it can change us.
But not everyone changes.
Some dig in deeper. They grow into adults who can’t have conversations without attacking. They carry forward fear or resentment that was never truly theirs to begin with. And in those adults, the seeds bloom into tribalism, conspiracy, and sometimes even violence.
That’s how ideologies become generational chains.
Both Sides Need to Look in the Mirror
It’s not just their side. It’s yours, too.
Conservatives: Are you teaching your kids to question ideas, or just to reject anything labeled “woke”? Do they understand the nuance of history, or are they only hearing about how “things used to be better”?
Liberals: Are your kids learning to truly listen, or only to label others as problematic? Are they being raised to speak truth with love, or to cancel people who think differently?
Both sides have blind spots. And both sides have hearts. But somewhere along the way, we stopped trying to see either.
Our Children Deserve Better Than This
They deserve honesty. They deserve space to grow without being weaponized in cultural wars. They deserve to develop their own understanding of the world, through curiosity and connection, not fear and division.
We’re not just teaching our kids who to vote for, we’re teaching them how to treat their neighbors, how to navigate disagreement, how to define truth, and what it means to be human.
We may think we’re protecting them by warning them about “the other side,” but in reality, we’re building walls in their minds that take years to tear down, if ever.
We Are All Human
Strip away the news cycle, the rhetoric, the culture wars, and what are we left with? People. Imperfect, scared, hopeful, exhausted people.
We have more in common than we think:
We love our kids.
We want safety.
We want purpose.
We want to belong.
But the smoke is thick. And it’s hard to see each other through the noise.
That’s why we must slow down, turn down the volume, and look not at the headlines, but at the little faces watching us from across the room.
What we say.
How we say it.
Who we call enemy.
And whether or not we truly mean love thy neighbor.
“You Are Made of Stories” (For My Son)
When the world feels loud,
And people choose sides like teams,
Remember—
You are made of stories.
Of struggle, and triumph.
Of ancestors who whispered songs you don’t yet understand
But one day will feel in your bones.
You carry two flags,
Not to choose between,
But to remember where you come from
And where you can go.
Your skin is not a barrier—
It is a badge.
Not of burden—
But of beauty.
Some will not understand.
That’s okay.
Not everyone listens to music in a language they can’t speak.
But that doesn’t make the song any less powerful.
One day, you’ll hear it all—
In colors, in rhythms,
In quiet knowing.
And you’ll smile,
Not because it all made sense,
But because you never gave up trying to learn.
– Humberto Rodriguez
Final Thought
Let’s choose to raise children who listen, who love, and who learn to see beyond the smoke. Let’s be brave enough to question our own beliefs and humble enough to admit when we’ve gotten it wrong.
Because when all the shouting fades, what matters most is not being right, it’s leaving behind something worth inheriting.
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