Lily's Hero in Fishnet Pantyhose and Sitting Bull

 

 Dr. Irene Pepperberg- Hero to Lily G.

Lily's fourth grade class did a hero project where the students were asked to choose a hero and write a report about that person. Each student also made a tin puppet of their hero and at an end of the year assembly were asked to hold their heroes high over head. Lily held her hero Dr. Irene Pepperberg (avian scientist, author of Alex and Me) high to the sky and I am certain that the puppet version of Dr. Pepperberg was the only hero in the 4th grade rockin' the fishnet pantyhose. Which she does indeed wear as noted by Lily when she visited the Cincinnati Public Library in March.

This was Lily's reflection on her hero Dr. Pepperberg.

"Modeling my behavior after Dr. Pepperberg's would improve my life because I wouldn't say "I give up" when something was too hard. I would stand up for my beliefs and not let other people influence me negatively. I would ignore those who tried to discourage me. I would tell the truth even when it was hard and I didn't think that anyone would believe me. Even if everyone teamed up against me, I would  do what I thought was right."

 Lily G.May,  2011

 

Jamie did a similar project with his personal hero Sitting Bull. Jamie thinks that Sitting Bull is fabulous because when he was 10, he killed a buffalo all by himself.  Jamie drew a sketch of how he imagined this scenario. A young Sitting Bull (looking remarkably like Jamie), riding a chestnut pony and with a spear and speech bubble stating "take that, buffalo!" And of course the buffalo fleeing in bloody terror from warrior brave Jamie, er... young Sitting Bull.  

My favorite part about Sitting Bull was that he was an adoptive father. Mr Bull and his five wives, (Light Hair, Four Robes, Snow on Her, Seen by her Nation, and Scarlet Woman) adopted two of their four children. A son named One Bull and a daughter, Walks Looking.  

Can you imagine being the social worker chosen to help with the Bull family's adoption? I wouldn't want to be the one to explain to Sitting Bull that there were problems that would delay his adoption... like maybe one of his wives had an issue getting the Sioux medicine healer to sign the prospective adoptive parent medical report. Or maybe when he went to get fingerprinted for his background check,  Mr. Bull perhaps learned that the grooves in his fingers weren't quite groovy enough to be electronically fingerprinted. I wouldn't want to be the person who told Mr. Bull that he would have to drive to a federal prison where they have a super-sensitive fingerprint reader machine that could read his too light fingerprints. (Yep, that was me... three adoptions, three trips to federal prison, three times joking with the nice warden about how I would be an excellent thief if I ever felt like stealing stuff instead of adopting a kid... "perfect fingers for burglary..." I've been told by those who know)  

I am glad that Sitting Bull lived during a time when the adoption process was less invasive and that Jamie's hero was able to adopt Walks Looking and One Bull without question, probably more important that he saved his energy for Custer.

Sitting Bull- Hero to Jamie G.