The AP reports that Pyper and Sadie Vance, ages 7 and 9, are taking their cute little rage to the streets. The sisters’ parents were forced to cancel their cable because they could no longer afford it due to high gasoline prices. The two fashioned some protest signs and hit the streets in downtown Salt Lake City. Details, inside…
The article says,
Cable TV was one of the family’s budget-cutting casualties, leaving Sadie, 9, and her 7-year-old sister without their favorite cartoons and shows.
“Gas prices are too high,” Sadie said. “I just decided to come and protest so they’d go down.”
The girls marched through downtown Monday chanting and carrying signs made from old campaign signs.
“All of my mom’s monny goes to the gas tank!” Pyper’s sign read. Sadie carried a sign asking drivers to honk to lower gas prices – adding that her mom had to cut “cabel.”
The girls got some waves and a few thumbs-up to show support.
“I think it’s great,” said Hamid Tayeb, who was walking past on his lunch break. “It’s unfortunate that kids are doing it before we do.”
Fight the power!
Angry kids protest gas prices after losing cable TV [AP] (Thanks to Miryam!)
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Hopefully this will start happening more – people dropping cable service and cellphone service to pay for more pressing items. It will shock the providers of those industries back into reality
mmmm entitlement.
@Roycester: Wow. So speculators had nothing to do with it?
Here’s some things they can do:
1. Read a book
2. Bike Ride
3. Boardgames (2nd hand stores have them cheap)
4. Card games
5. Art/Crafts
We limit the amount of TV the kids watch, the shows they like are mostly crap.
Not only do I fail to find this cute, I’m overall pretty disgusted by so many things by it:
1. Mom and Dad seem to have forgotten to show kids the essentials of childhood: playing (inside and out), reading, imagination, and riding bikes.
2. Mom and Dad seem to have forgotten to ever take kids to the library to take out books… or even rent movies- all you need is a VCR (and in my house, that was for rainy days only) or DVD player.
3. Mom and Dad seem to have forgotten to teach kids that getting driven around in a vehicle is the only way to go places. My mom used to take us on the bus from time to time and treat it as an ‘adventure;’ sounds lame, but prepared me for taking the bus all the way into my late 20s.
4. Mom and Dad seem to have forgotten to teach kids that there are people far worse off than they are and that they ought to be thankful they can still use a vehicle to get places.
I hate sounding so damn old-fashioned, but seriously, shit like this is neither cute nor helping/changing anything.
at least make the signs legible, damn. stupid ass mormon kids with stupid misspelled names.
If the father has time to drive these kids around, maybe he should get a job.
mommy had to cut cable because it was eating into her gin and cigarette budget.
@glitterati: Fuel prices aren’t just high in the States. I could be wrong, but crude oil is a non-renewable resource and due to its eventual scarcity, wouldn’t prices be driven higher due to demand for a minimal supply? I realize, though, that ‘big business’ has to do with the price at the pumps these days, but I certainly am not kidding myself into thinking a protest or act of civil disobedience by anyone is going to get the price of fuel to decline.
@sean77: I lol’ed.. but not too loud because I’m at work, earning money to pay for gas.
Stupid kids, stupid parents. What, exactly, does letting them protest teach them? That we should all protest things that we don’t like or that are inconvenient? That everyone should have the right to cheap gas and cable?
Their time could have been better used learning about ways to save energy, or coming up with other ways to entertain themselves to save money (like ::gasp!:: playing outside, or going to the library!).
It’s easy to blame gas prices when this is the real problem…
@battra92: Someone find those 4th graders a factory to work in pronto!
This makes me sad. These young girls care more about cable? Wow. What type of values are in this family? This society? Who NEEDS cable? I don’t blame them; they’re kids. Let’s look at the family, the society. Call me old fashioned (I am), but I agree with those calling it a blessing in disguise. Heaven help us.
I stopped watching TV. For the first two weeks I guess I kinda missed it. After that it annoyed me too watch TV. I haven’t gone back for 7 years now and I’ve never missed it. Admittedly, I do regularly download the daily show.
@Bakkster_Man:
Oh No! The Mormons are coming, The Mormons are coming! Everyone panic! We’re all going to die! Aaaahhhhhh!!!!!
/end complete sarcasm.
Seriously though, there are perfectly good cartoons on the regular over-the-air channels. Use rabbit ears with a digital receiver of course, and they’ll be fine. If they don’t like those, then go to the library, rent movies/TV from Blockbuster and/or the public library, etc.
I would agree that this seems like a parent’s publicity stunt. Since when do 6 and 9 year olds have the gumption to stage a protest?
Cheers!
@SinisterMatt:
Sorry, that should be 7 and 9 years old, instead of 6 and 9. It would help if I could read right.
my mom would have three words for me, “get a job.”
@Kurtz: I know three little girls named Piper. The mother of one of them told me she named her after the Pink Floyd album Piper at the Gates of Dawn. (The mom in question is about 30, by the way. I am about as old as the album myself, and I’m a lot older than her.) Another one appears to have been named after the chapter in The Wind in the Willows by the same name as the album. The third one was named after a friend of the family, so who knows really.
Geez, why is everyone so harsh on these kids and parents?
It looks like they are doing this on a lark, and having a bit of fun. Is there no sense of humor anymore?
The parents cut out cable and the kids do something mildly proactive, fun and public. So both get blasted for being cheap, wasteful, manipulative, etc.
Maybe it’s nothing more sinister than two parents trying to save money, and kids trying to participate in society.
read a book and learn to spell. At 7 or 9 i could certainly spell “money” and “cable”, of which my family had neither at the time. Go read about Ramona Quimby, girls.
Make some friends and watch their cable if you’re so pathetic. I agree that their parents put them up to this, 9 year olds should be able to spell. Why though? Did their parents really think their children protesting in SLC is really going to make people go “oh, never mind, free gas for all!”
Why is this a news story. If I just go stand out side and protest bananas is that newsworthy suddenly?
@stanner: I question that, simply because the tone of their protest is “High gas prices mean I can’t watch TV, wahhhhhhhhhh!”
I don’t know whether it’s cute or sad that they think they’re “doing something” about high gas prices.
@stanner: They appear to consider it a trivial thing to protest about.
But people should protest injustice no matter how it presents itself. It may be comparatively trivial, yes, but the difference is only in degree. I suppose the people who think this is all trivial think that this family must actually be sick and starving and homeless before they have the right to protest something.
In before Get a Brain Morans!
@GenXCub: You wish!
@speedwell: It is insulting to protest the price of oil so you can have cable tv. Acting like Spongebob is a right not a privilege is insulting to anyone who is actually financially struggling.
Protesting the price of gas because your parents can’t afford cable TV is like protesting the price of gas because your parents can’t buy you an Wii and PS3 for Christmas. It marginalizes the people who really have tight budgets now by giving the public the impression that all financial “burdens” are as vapid and inconsequential as this one.
@boss_lady:
Well put. Someone who didn’t see rising fuel prices coming hasn’t been paying attention. We’ve had it good for a very long time – gas prices in europe have been well over $5/gal for years now (they were $7/ga in 2005 and that’s when we had a stronger dollar..).
Prediction – cost of water is going to go up, and probably very soon. Your utility bills will get higher – we’re using non-renewable resources for most of our heating/cooling and the less there is of something, the more it will cost.
Yes, gas prices are artificially high, but it’s all relative. Speculators ARE increasing the cost, but even if we remedy that, the cost will still continue to rise.
If you think this is a crisis now, give it another 5 or 10 years when India and China add another couple hundred million cars to their roads…
@consumersaur: Read the footnote.
Cry me a river little girls. So what if you can’t watch Hannah Montana or Baby Einstein. Why don’t you go read a book instead of watching tv all day?
I’m confused about what people think these kids should do instead.
So are they supposed to go sit in the library and read a book, or go outside?
Note that they aren’t asking for anything. No favors, no handouts, no entitlements. They are just lodging their complaints. And getting slammed for either doing it at all, doing with without a spell checker, or not doing it about something mature and important enough. (Okay, they are asking for people to honk.)
Again, the lack of humor and enjoyment at kids doing something interesting is pretty thick here.
Yeah, this will stop rising gas prices! Way to make a difference!
Pfffffffft.
@rjgnyc: How many 7 & 9-year-olds do you know? Of course they’re going to only be focused on the world that’s 5″ in front of their faces. They’re seven. And nine. Jeezus.
Would you be happier if they were protesting the IMF for pressuring developing countries into rashly privatizing core infrastructure assets to meet previous loans’ capital balance requirements? Small steps. Long journeys.
It’s cool that the ‘rents are channeling that precocious rage into doing something about it, rather than being a slave. When they’re a decade older, they can protest more significant things and be proper activists.
Although, I’d really be amused if the ‘rents got tired of being reamed by Comcast, cancelled it then hatched a plan to blame it on Big Oil.
“We love the Jonas Brothers too, kids. It’s Exxon that took them from you!”
a1qw2sa think before posting you should have read the signs. Before the kids moan about the ‘monny’ and cost of ‘cabel’ they ought to spend more time in school reading and learning how to spell. For a different reason, ‘Mom’ made the right choice.
A good Nancy Drew mystery might do them both some good. The public library should have several copies available.
Whoops! I thought this was a picture of Barack Obama’s energy policy team. Now that I’ve read the article, I see that it’s just some children whining about gas prices. I suppose there is a difference.
I hope that the parents actually did something to combat fuel consumption causing these high prices by forgoing using the massive SUV-A-TRON 2000(TM) to drop them off for their “protest” and instead have the girls ride their bikes or, heaven forbid, ride the bus.
… like that would really happen.
Join the club girls!
The sad thing is the amout of people out there who claim being broke/poor yet still have luxuries like cable & multiple cellphones etc. etc..
I have no cable, no internet (that I pay for besides a $4 a month dialup connection I use at work).. (unsecured wifi is a wonderfull thing!), no home phone & a prepaid cellphone plan that costs me a whopping $4 a month (basically used for emergencies only) & I can well afford gas for my vehicle.
My only real luxury is frequent fast food meals.
What an adorable little viral marketing campaign! The big mean oil companies really do need to start acting more Comcastically! (Comcasticly? I don’t believe there is an adverbial form of Comcastic yet.)
Oh & btw…. I havnt had cable in 5 years & miuss it terribly!
I have to resort to downloading shows, but I miss the occassional film gem that I ran across on the film channels.
@SinisterMatt:
I beg to differ! Today’s “over the air” cartoons are horrible crap compared to the cartoons of yesteryear. I cant find a damn one that even matched the quality of the smurfs!
Saturday mornign is a JOKE compared to what it used to be. More boring educational programming than there ever was. One channel cut out cartoons alltogether & is just news.
I weep for today’s children & lack of decent quality cartoons.
Note: beakman’s world is just about the only decent saturday morning show anymore(the episodes where they dont have the fat girl as one of the sidekicks). Too bad they cancelled that show & its only in reruns.
No wonder kids are running towards cable’s cartoons as the broadcast fare is absolute rubbish!
At least they’re outside now. Maybe they’d get more news if they burned down a gas station. Or maybe they had Comcast and now they are FREE!
Supply and demand. That’s why gas prices are high.
At least its finally stopped the proliferation of ridiculously large SUVs and people carriers in the UK. Now everyone thinks you’re a tit if you drive one through a city.
They really want to protest? Send them to Venezuela or Saudi Arabia to protest there.
I can see Hugo Chavez now, shedding real tears at the sight of two American little girls, upset that they lost cable TV. “This is a travesty! It’s one thing to watch the poor struggle with gas prices, but little girls not being able to watch Hannah Montana? That is the last straw! Increase production and lower prices immediately!”, he will say.
@rjgnyc: Oh, two little girls who are upset because their parents can’t afford a fun thing for them anymore are offending the poor of America.
Pardon me while I grab my hanky and weep that someone somewhere was offended. I’m devastated to know that these little girls were insensitive. Boo hoo hoo.
@forgottenpassword: You miss cable? How can you possibly miss cable? I can see if you’re a little kid and you need something to do while you’re waiting on the big slow adults to get out of bed of a Saturday morning, maybe. But I gave up TV the year Married With Children first aired (it must have been 20 years ago) and have not even owned one since. My partner has one, but he only uses it for watching videos, and half of those are work-related (he’s a professional animator).
In short, as many commenters here have twitted, read a book. Do something new. Participate in something. Quit being so goddamn passive.
This is repulsive. I think it’s time to kill myself.
OMG, next thing you know, they’ll have to give up their cell phones, MP3 players, video games, dance lessons and designer clothes!!!!
They should be thankful that mommy and daddy still have a place to live and that there’s food on the table.
Don’t let the Man get you down. In this case, Exxon.
1. I bet money their parents were driving an over sized truck and/or SUV.
[sympathy meter: low]
2. Why don’t they petition for economics to be taught in public schools? Not only will they not waste their time while everyone drives by in an SUV “honking to reduce gas prices,” in 20 or 30 years, the majority of the US will actually understand what’s behind the price of something
[hint: supply vs. demand, with extra emphasis on the shape of the demand curve caused by the Truck/SUV craze]
3. Cable television is an even bigger rip off than gasoline. Want a TV show: go to the The Pirate Bay.
Oh look at that, now we no longer have any reason to protest…
Maybe this is just a Verizon FIOS publicity stunt.
One wonders if they couldn’t have cut something else, like, say, driving.