Dear Friends,
I am contacting you with an urgent appeal for your help. I am very concerned about the recent tragedy in Oregon, which is, sad to say, the latest in a series of these tragic incidents. My thinking is we can brainstorm about these ideas, come up with some new ones and post our thoughts on the web site! Sound like a plan!?! As always use the Reply to All function, so we can all read your thoughts.
Everywhere I go I hear the same questions asked over and over again. "So what is happening?" "What's going on?" There's such a feeling of resignation and angst about the whole situation. Our children are killing other children. I can't imagine anything more horrible than that. I don't want to think about it. It's just too terrible.
As Marianne said in a recent post on our web site, it tries your faith, because the first time it happens, you pray. Then the second time, you pray again, this time a bit harder. The third time, you pray, and in prayer you begin to wonder if you're being heard.
And then the next time it happens, there's a sense of urgency unlike anything I've ever felt before. I find myself wanting to say, "Now, God, listen to me. I'm not kidding. I want this to STOP."
The time has come for us to all enlist in the effort. Laws won't do it alone, though there's a good place to focus some of our effort. Prayer will be a good place to continue to look for answers. And, putting feet to our prayers isn't a bad idea either.
There's something for everyone to do. If you are moved to work spiritually through prayer, do it! If you feel moved to work legislatively and petition Congress for change, do it! If you feel moved to volunteer your time, once a week, for an hour, at your local school to be a mentor, or just supervise school recess and hold a space for love and light on that playground, do it! There's a lot to do, and we've got a lot of hands. Whatever you feel moved to do, whatever you are able to do, now is the time to do it.
As I write this, we know there have been indications that Missouri and Maryland might have been next. The police have discovered that students in schools in both states were drawing up "hit lists."
When children start behaving like their Terminator heros and acting out those scripts in real life, it's time for drastic action.
This issue resonates with us, as parents of children who attend these schools. We now know that what keeps our children safe is not only our prayers and love, but random chance as well. I remember all those mothers and fathers who sent their children to that school in Oregon who were no doubt praying as hard as we do. Violence now strikes one in every ten of our schools. It's time we put an end to that cycle.
I'm also concerned as a citizen who wants our young people to treat each other with the same respect I expect to be treated. I'm concerned as a voter who demands more of our politicians than a continual bowing to the whims of the National Rifle organization. I'm also concerned as a spiritually active person who is concerned about the spiritual health of our community.
Our children are our future. If we lose them, we've lost everything.
Hillary Clinton's book, It Takes A Village, constantly reminds us of the important role that we all play in raising our nation's children. In her book she writes, "As Jackie Kennedy Onassis said, "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much." That goes for each of us, whether or not we are parents -- and for all of us as a nation."
It's time for all of us, parents or not, to take an active role and get involved with our children's lives. They're screaming for our attention and our love. We ought to be listening!
Enough talk! Want to get involved? Here's how!
1) Prayer and Meditation! As Marianne has shared with us time and time again, to succeed in an effort like this, we need a plan. But no plan will work unless we pray and meditate. Here's a prayer Marianne wrote for your use in your meditation. Use it if you feel so moved. As you meditate for five minutes after the prayer, focus on our children. See your children (your own or the neighborhood's children) gathered together at the schoolyard. Meditate and send them peace and protection. Offer your prayers and meditation for their safety. Continue your meditation and prayer for thirty days from the time you start. This is a very holy time in many of our religions. Call on that extra spiritual energy that is available to you at this time to increase the focus and power of your prayers for peace and an elimination of the anger in the hearts of our children.
2) Legislatively! Take action!
A) Contact your Representatives in Congress, your representatives in your state house, your mayor and your town council and tell them you grow more and more concerned about the epidemic of child violence. Tell them you support legislation that will make guns "child proof" and strong efforts to require adults to lock up their guns to keep them away from children.
B) Demand that they address these issues in their campaigns! It's time for us to stop being silent. Find out where your elected officials are appearing for campaign events or campaign rallies. Challenge them to make a difference and support legislation to get guns out of kids' hands. Be specific! Tell them that gun makers could make guns "child proof" if they wanted to. That's a good first step. Making sure guns are locked up and supporting education and enforcement efforts are another good step. There's a lot we can all do, and it's time we began demanding action from our leaders. Approach them with love and concern. After all, I'm sure they love their children, too, and if we emphasize the fact that their children are in danger too — their children and grandchildren — I think they'll be sympathetic.
3) Get involved with your school system! There are so many overworked and overburdened teachers in our school system. Volunteer! Adopt your local school, and if you can, help them find Mentors, if you can't do that yourself. If no program exists, urge they start one. It doesn't have to be fancy or elaborate. Spending an hour a week with a child can make all the difference. Volunteer to spend that hour, at the school, in the classroom, in the play yard, in the lunch room, anywhere you are needed. Just being a presence and holding a space for love and light will make all the difference.
4) Write an Op-Ed, or a letter to the Editor of your local paper. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate. Just offer a few suggestions, like the above, for what your community can do to help ease the tension and eliminate the violence from our nation's school yards. Challenge your mayor, the town council, and your school system to make a difference. Ask them to stand up for our kids and ensure their safety while at school.
5) Talk to your clergy, your priests, your rabbi, or whomever you join together with for spiritual guidance. Urge them to use their offices to make this issue a top priority in the minds of the congregation. They have a unique opportunity to speak to our nation's and the community's leaders from the pulpit. Suggest it as a good topic for a sermon.
6) Talk to your friends. This is a consciousness raising exercise as well. Remember the story about the 100 monkeys? When 100 monkeys had all accepted a new way of thinking it became part of the consciousness of all the species. In a similar manner, we need to increase the consciousness that says that violence by kids is not acceptable, and violence by adults isn't acceptable either. Somewhere along the way kids haven't learned that it's not o.k. to try to solve problems with aggression. That has to change.
7) Contact the media. I'm not pointing fingers, but the media continues to glamorize violence. The top stories they broadcast every night are all based on violence. That needs to be balanced. Urge that more positive stories are broadcast, not only to balance out the violence and "bad news" — but to show people that there are ways to make a difference. Show people where to go to volunteer to help and they will.
8) Contact your local school and make an appointment to see the principal. Ask if they have a guidance counselor who is trained in conflict resolution. Ask if they have such a program in place. If not, urge that they implement one and assure them you'll help to get the community's interest and support for the funds necessary for such a program. If they do, urge them to make it well known to the children at school through regular mailings and school assemblies. Ask if teachers are empowered to refer children in crisis to that counselor.
9) Child nutrition programs — make them a priority! We keep cutting back on the funds for child nutrition programs, confident that charity will make up the slack. It's time we expressed our appreciation for the good work our charities do, yes, but it's also time we demanded our local leaders and politicians fully fund these programs. Well-fed children who receive adequate nourishment are better able to learn. We know that for a fact. It's time we gave them a helping hand to that first rung on the ladder and made sure they were strong enough to climb it by guaranteeing them a good meal while at school.
10) Keep it up and keep us informed! Once you get started, don't stop! If you come up with more ideas — share them! Post them on our web site. If you make a start and get a program going in your neighborhood — share the good news! It will encourage others to do the same.
These are just a few of the ideas we came up with in a brainstorming session. We have some incredibly creative people here. Let's continue to put our heads together in master mind fashion to help solve these problems.
The time is now. The place is here. It's up to us to make a start.
(Reprinted with the permission of Ron, Online Citizen Salon)
