Heather’s World in Review

One thing I particularly enjoy doing is reading news. I like to learn what happens in this great world of ours. I want to learn both the good and the bad side of humanity. I want to try to understand why people do what they do. I’d like to think that I understand why we are the ways we are when I can consider the history behind our cultures. Then I read news involving harming children…

Israeli soldiers are supposedly using children to open potential hazardous packages to avoid inuring the adults that were to receive the contents. Children are being used as essential human shields by being made to walk in front of militant groups. Other children are just being generally overlooked when it comes to striking fear into their enemies by seemingly blatant disregard to fellow humans. Over 400 children are reported as being killed this conflict.

These children that survive are going to have to deal with these haunting memories all of their life. They are going to harbor anger towards those that took their families away from them. They are going to harbor anger towards those that let this happen to them without attempting to help. They are going to be the people to keep these conflicts going as they want to make the world right.

I try as I might to comprehend why people would purposely put children in danger, I cannot. These children are our future. These are the people that will grow up to inherit our world and make the laws of our lands when we are too old and grey to take care of ourselves. The things that we do to them while they are young is how they treat us when they get older. If you treat a child with nothing but disrespect and fear, they will grow up with no respect for others and continue the cycle of damaging yet another generation of children.

Unfortunately, there is little that I can do as an American when it comes to things like this. Short of wisking away every child in the world away to a safe home without the horrors, I have to settle with trying to raise my son with an open heart and open mind towards his fellow man. I cannot raise the children of the world, but I can do my part to make sure that this one child is given what he needs to become a productive member of this world when he matures. Children such as my own are my hope that we can build a better future.

Until people realize that many cultures in this world, including much of American culture, are brought up in hate and disrespect, we will continue to be victims of our own past. The world is growing up slowly to realize that our father’s father may not have always had the ideal point of view. Until we can be real as an individual and respect the rights of everyone else’s individualism, we will always have problems such as people put in harm’s way that shouldn’t be put there.