or on how we teach children that Their lives have no value...
We are all teachers: Today was the start of environment week. Sun, sky, mountain, beach, tree, to plant, to grow.
Their eyes get wide as they repeat; They mimic the sounds you are making.
They get confident; They realize they can conjugate these verbs on their own.
They realize you have taught them a tool, and they know how to use it.
We plant ideas; Treat the earth well. Protect it.
They grow; They know how to respect the world and each other.
They incorporate them: They do a coloring exercise.
We give them an example; Draw ‘an environment. ’
They see what we have made: a picture of a beach.
We give them the tools to replicate our work; They each get a couple different colored pencils.
They organize on their own; They sit in a circle to share ALL the colored pencils
They think outside the box.
They share their ideas, their colors.
In the end, they show us what they have made: 15 students. 15 beaches.
It is what we taught them; Each angled in the same way, each with one palm tree. Each with a bright yellow sun. Each with a cloud dead center.
Children instantly teach us everything we could ever need to know about social systems.
About wars.
About centuries of feud.
They teach us it is extremely hard to do something different than the examples we were given.
Today I saw the number of children who have died as of June 2013. 6,561.
I taught my children up to “10.”
I saw a picture of a seven year olds’ funeral. He was wrapped in a flag. He wasn’t even as tall as my chest.
I taught my children “chest” yesterday.
I saw a picture of a three year old being carried away from an explosion by her weeping father. She was covered in her own red blood.
I taught my children “red” on Friday.
I look at pictures of international human rights violations and I keep coming back to one thought…regardless of which sides you are on politically, a three year old should never be blown up. A seven year old should never be shot. A four year old should not be driven over by a tank. A two year old should not be gunned down in his father’s arms. A mother should never need to run with her child covered in blood to the hospital in less that child fell off the swing while it was all the way up in the air.
A parent should not bury their child.
No land is worth that. No power is worth that. No money is worth that. No government is worth that. No sovereignty is worth that.
No child should be taken. When they are you should know and understand that their classmates will take the lesson from your book as their creed. It is alright to murder innocent civilians.
Violence begets violence because we as a people show children that violence ‘works.’ We condone it. We pay for it.
Their beach will not be too different than the one we drew. The one we shot and killed four children on.
Call me a pacifist, an apologist.
Call me guilty.
Call me whatever you want.
Killing innocent children is killing innocent children. I don’t care who is doing it. I don't care what their parents do or did. I don't care where they live, what language they speak, or what you think they might become. It is genocide, and it is wrong.
You cannot convince me otherwise. You cannot.
I stand with justice. I stand for a future where children know a full life, long before they know a violent end. Stand with me.
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