Hi, Tom.

The first thing I thought of is the 2 dozen "Jasons" in hockey masks and "Freddie Krugers" with steel manicures that turn up at my door on Hallowe'en. It's so grotesque it couldn't possibly be serious.

But no-- this is just like the 5-year-olds picketing Planned Parenthood clinics with their parents, and for that matter, just like me clanking my way to school in 1959 wearing a coat covered with "Kennedy for President" buttons. Children who advertize for a political point of view almost never have a clear idea of any of the issues (I thought it would be cool to have an Irish Catholic President) and infrequently represent their parents' hopes for them personally, but rather are one more way their parents express their own beliefs. Another kind of vicarious living through one's offspring.

I doubt the dad had much more in mind than to make a symbolic statement using his daughter's image, and she's such a cute little thing that a photographer obliged. One would hope that she hadn't just gotten out of suicide class. On the other hand (a cynical thought), she is only a girl...

Regards--
Mary Anne