Mr Bellamy's Field Trip

Mr. Bellamy’s Field Trip 

Elizabeth 15 and Greg 14 school friends were talking during lunch about the wars in the middle east and how their parents were always fighting over if America should be involved. Both of their fathers are veterans and say it’s better if we must fight; we do it in someone's country. My mom says she doesn’t care; no children of hers are going over to die in some other country away from home.

After a couple of months and talking to more of their classmates the same thing was said by most of them. It started to be the main topic every time a group got together. Greg said let's ask Mr. Bellamy our History teacher and see what he says.

Elizabeth and Greg’s friends that were having the same family issues have been on Facebook, Linkedin, talking to students and young people from all over the US. Through friends of friends, they found out there were thousands of kids that want to do something. They knew their parents would not let them participate without adult supervision.     

I believe if there were enough of us saying the same thing adults might hear. Elizabeth says I’m glad you have been reading our stuff, have you got any ideas.?

Let's talk to Mr. Bellamy and see if we can organize a school-supported field trip.

They got together with Mr. Bellamy and explained what they have been talking about, and they felt they wanted to do something about it to stop their parents from arguing all the time. They explained they knew in most cases adults will not seriously listen to youth their age, so what did he think it would take for adults to take notice of them.

Mr. Bellamy said he would pass it by the administration and see what happens.

A couple of weeks later Mr. Bellamy met with Elizabeth Greg and the group and told them the administration had approved the trip. It will be a Civics class, and there will be an exam when they return.

The plan was to go on a field trip to Washington and talk to as many of the politicians as possible. At the same time, Elizabeth and Greg were talking to many students on Facebook, LinkedIn and discovering there were a lot of families in the same situation. So, nearing the end of the planning, they asked Mr. Bellamy if he would contact other High Schools and coordinate field trips for them to be in Washington all at the same time. Mr. Bellamy said he would and get back to them as soon as he heard something.

While this was going on Elizabeth and Greg started talking to FB friends in Europe who were talking to their FB friends around the world. It seems all the kids worldwide are having the same problem with their families and want to how they are doing and want to know how they could be part of it.

Greg got online to as many as he could, going through friends of friends and explained what they were going to do and if they talked to a teacher that might help them. Greg explained if they can pull it off, then field trip should have them all arrive in Washington DC in the same week. If they worked it right, there could be 5 to 10 kids from schools all over the world and could be in the millions of kids. Elizabeth told Greg to tell everyone that they shouldn't let too many other schools find out because they might figure out what the kids have planned.

Greg and Elizabeth were talking to a few other classmates about what was going on, and one of the other girls asked “what is going to happen to Mr. Bellamy when this happens, and everyone else goes home” is he going to get the blame because he is the teacher that started it. She said I think we should tell Mr. Bellamy so he knows what is going on; I don’t think he could stop it now even if he wanted to.  

A couple of days later while in class, Greg asked Mr. Bellamy if some of the kids could talk to him. During the meeting, it was all explained to Mr. Bellamy, and all he could do was stand there with a confused look, he wasn’t sure if they were pulling his leg or if they were serious. When they were done and left, he just stood there in disbelief. They were going to do this and did he want to be part of it or not. If anything went wrong, he would get blamed, and he would never teach again. On the other hand, the kids started with the right idea and have done a lot, but this gathering has gotten too big for them, and without some help and some serious coordination this thing would most likely blow up in their faces.

If he is going to help them, it will need to be all the way or nothing. As a veteran and a Marine Officer, he has a lot of connections. He started calling and explaining to each friend what was going on and they began to plan. As the gathering of the kids is a couple of months off, his friends divided up the things to do transportation, food, accommodations, and last but not least do it all without being conspicuous and making anyone suspicious.

The coordinator is Mr. Bellamy, but he and his friends over the next couple of months should have it all lined out just like a large military movement.

Following this, you see different scenes with Mr. Bellamy’s friends each one doing his part of the logistics and continually keeping Mr. Bellamy up to date.

Four days before the gathering kids from all over the world started to arrive 5 to 10 at a time and shuttled off to the designated accommodations.

On the day of the gathering, thousands and thousands of kids start to arrive in the area in front of the White House. It wasn’t until there were 10’s of thousands of kids that people started to realize something was going on. The authorities started to arrive because traffic was at a standstill and TV stations started to set up. After it seemed like millions of kids were there when several officials from the government arrived and asked what was going on and who was in charge. There was silence, and no one moved that the government people started getting angry and demanded to see someone in charge.

It was then Elizabeth, and Greg stepped forward with papers in hand and Elizabeth said “we need to go someplace and talk, this (waving her hand over the gathering) will not go away until we are listened to.

Mike Siver