After a delicious Sunday meal, Andrea wants ice cream for dessert, but there is a law that prohibits people from eating ice-cream whenever it is cloudy. Andrea tries to convince her grandmother and parents to disregard that law because it makes no sense at all, instead, she gets punished.

 

Next Monday she tells her friends what happened, and they decide they want to figure out how to change a law that makes no sense at all. They organize, they protest, they get punished, they hold on together, they receive threats, they try to negotiate, and nothing changes until eventually, they decide to escalate their strike by shutting down the internet, this forces the president to join the negotiation table.

 

Will they be able to change the law?

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“Change the law! Change the law!

We want to eat ice cream whenever we want!”

Everyone chanted.

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“Power, I think.” Said Simone. “I don’t think we have power even if every kid asked their parents the same thing. That does not sound like the power to negotiate. It’s just kids asking our parents for things. We need to do something bigger, something different, to get the power we need to negotiate.”

 

“What can give us the power?” Emiliano asked, “What can we do to have real power?”

 

“Everyone doing the same thing on their own definitely isn’t enough. But I think that everyone doing one thing together might also not be enough.” Simone paused. “To negotiate, we need to have something the adults want. If we have something they want, we can tell them that they won’t get it unless they change the law.”

 

It was so strange, so extraordinary, and a bit scary too.

 

Emiliano smiled. He felt a strange tingling all over his body. He raised his fist toward the sky and shouted: “Let’s get the power to negotiate! The power to change laws! I want to change the laws to be able to eat ice cream when it’s cloudy outside!”

 

Emiliano and Simone high-fived. All the kids looked into each other’s gleaming eyes.

 

“Do you want this revolution to continue?” Emiliano asked all the kids around.

 

“Yes! We want to eat ice cream when it's cloudy outside!” Everyone chanted.

 

“The ice cream revolution is still happening!” Emiliano looked into Andrea’s eyes. “We’re not giving up! You shouldn’t give up!”

 

Andrea felt a rush of strength and energy fill her entire body. “OK, OK.” A happy tear rolled out of her eye. “The ice cream revolution is not over yet! Change the law that makes no sense at all!”

 

Everyone clapped and cheered.

 

“We are not giving up, but we still haven’t figured out how we can get the power to negotiate with adults.” Simone reminded everyone. “Now we have to think. What do we have that adults want?”

 

Silence. No one had a quick answer. They all thought hard.

 

“I…. I can’t think of anything right now.” Andrea said with a sad face.

 

“It’s OK, you don’t have to think of everything on your own.” Emiliano hugged her again. “There are a lot of us here, we can all help and think of what adults want.”

 

“That’s it!” Andrea got excited again. “I know how to get tons of ideas.” 

Andrea pointed at the children around them and the others who were playing farther away. “We can ask everyone to brainstorm ideas. We are not the only ones that want to change the law. Everyone does. This is not only our revolution, it’s everyone’s! Everyone should share their ideas and we should decide together what we want to do. Because many of us are getting punished, it makes no sense that one or two people get to decide what everyone does.”

 

Simone liked this idea. “You’re right!” She said. “If every kid shares an idea, we will have hundreds. Even if most of them don’t work, we only need one idea to work to win!”

 

“Yes, let's get all the children in school involved!” Emiliano said happily.

 

“Wait.” Said Andrea. “This revolution is not only about the children at our school. My friends at other schools got punished. I think they should also be involved. They should also come up with ideas and we should all decide together. Not just one, two, three, or a hundred of us, but everyone that wants to change this law should be able to give their opinions and come up with ideas.”