These past few weeks literally made us stop and reflect; about our families, about our friends, about our enemies, about the children of the world. I don’t know about you but all I could hear when that tragic event took place was the distant sound of a child crying. The hurting child, the orphaned child, the dying child., suffering alone in pain and in agony…. And all I could do was pray to my Higher Power, our Creator, our Father, for Him to be merciful on these children.
What these terrorists did was so incomprehensible, so meaningless and so horrendous. But we were put in a situation where we can now relate to their lives because in reality, what they brought us was a glimpse of their world, and how their countries have been living day in and day out. And how they too must have loved their children the way we love ours. I am in no means trying to sympathize with the terrorist groups and their leader and the cowards that they are, but instead trying to put into perspective the events that came about. We are all in mourning; our neighbors, our leaders, our nation. But who mourns for their children? Who will prevent this from happening to their children and their homes? These children have been stripped of their right to live in the freedom of play, in the freedom of laughter, in the freedom of an innocent childhood, a universal right that our governments have protected for our children. But who protects their children’s right to live so freely? We are shown on the media how these children are raised to kill with no remorse, to carry an “uzi” by the age of six, to sacrifice their very lives to set off a bomb on a bus load of innocent victims without a blink of an eye or a second thought. But ask yourself this, what other life can they have anyway? Perhaps war is not the answer. Perhaps revenge is not the answer. Perhaps two wrongs will not make it right again, for any of us. There are poverty stricken families living in Afghanistan unable to flee their country, left there to pray for the lives of their children and for Allah to be merciful on them. A group of terrorists does not represent the Islam nation, just like Timothy MacVeigh did not represent the American nation. We cannot control Evil, but it can control you and your family if you let it into your home. So when you pray with your children, pray for the unfortunate children of the world, not just our neighbors, but for the Afghani children as well. Maybe we alone cannot make the world a different place, but we can make our home a better place. Don’t discriminate people or ethnic groups by saying “THOSE people” or “THAT Black man” or “THAT illegitimate child”. Your child hears this and learns from this. Why do you think God gave our children such big eyes and big ears? Because everything they learn, they learn from us. Raise your child to accept and respect. Change what you can; yourself and the upbringing of your child. Accept but pray for what you can’t change; the world. Know the difference between the two.
The Serenity Prayer
Lord,
Grant me the Serenity to Accept the things I cannot change, The Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference….
from a Mother, a Daughter, a Sister of the Cree Nation
