save the children?

Reading the newspaper and watching the news is sometimes an unpleasant reminder of a few of the more disturbing things about the world we live in. Granted, the media does have a tendency to embelish incidents, but I don't believe that much embelishment is necessary for a person to feel sadness when they hear that innocent children are being killed or abused.

Last year, I remember my shock when I was in Japan about the story of the 11-year old girl slashing her friend's throat with a boxcutter.

The latest story to hit the news is the death of a 2-year old Canadian boy in Cambodia - an entire international pre-school was taken hostage by a group of 4 men who demanded money and a vehicle. Supposedly, the only reason the boy was killed was because he was crying too much. It echoes of the Beslan incident that happened months ago.

On a more local level, there was news today that a 63-year old man who was arrested in the Seattle area may be a serial child molester responsible for thousands of cases of abuse. When police raided his house, they found seven spiral notebooks (1,360 pages), with handwritten lists of names of boys, cataloged with codes that possibly describe what kinds of abuse took place. The initial police estimate is that the suspect chronicled over 36,000 incidents of abuse. He's being extradited to San Jose to face charges.

what. the. hell.

And don't even get me started on millions of kids serving as child soldiers in Africa, kids forced into prostition in Asia, kids living in Palestinian ghettoes, or kids orphaned by the war in Iraq. Not to mention that about 90 million children are starving for lack of food, while 63% of the American population is overweight, cramming their mouths with Mcburgers and throwing away food... a completely preventable cause of suffering.

Why do people not cherish and protect the most vulnerable members of our community? Have people become that amoral and callous that the abuse and death of children is no longer an important thing? It all makes me ashamed to be a part of humanity.
posted by G at 11:46 PM   |

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33