I can't help but draw influence from professional comic strip artists when I write Forever 16. And while the 1990s strips are heavily influenced by Bill Amend's "FoxTrot", the 2000s strips are more like Aaron McGruder's "The Boondocks". Case in point - this politically satirical story from November 2001. In the paranoid atmosphere of post-9/11 America, Michelle's got to be a lot more careful with what she Googles.
[link]
I'd like to think we're past that, but from what I've been hearing, there's still a long way to go before the damages done in the first decade on the 21st Century can be repaired.
They probably arrested Michelle as much for her bun hat as her political views.
"No matter what you are doing at any given time, there is a law against it."
And no wonder Jocelyn is such a rebel; her parents are both idiots.