Haitian Children
I heard the news today, oh boy..." -- Beatles, A Day In the Life
Its been over a week since an earthquake struck Haiti. The dead number in the hundreds of thousands. News coverage has turned from the need for assistance....to how relief agencies are bungling that assistance.
After another particularly depressing story, the NPR announcer came on with something that stuck with me. Children who's parents were killed in the quake have no-one to care for them. Save the Children, one of the relief agencies, is setting up special zones inside the tent cities where children can play in a safe, supervised area.
It was a throw-away line by the announcer. His note was tacked on, like a footnote to this broader coverage. Like many Americans, I have grown tired of Haiti coverage and have begun mentally tuning it out in favor of more pleasant thoughts.
When this announcer started talking about children, all I could see in my mind was PBS, wandering through the chaotic and crushed streets clutching his bunny. No-one to take his hand and feed him, nobody to pick him up if he trips, no one to rock him to sleep at night....
And I started to cry.
These are children. I'm not saying that everyone has to have the latest and greatest of toys and clothing, but everyone should have someone that loves them. When that is cruelly taken away by natural disaster, we stand in danger of loosing ourselves and civilization. Perhaps this is a change that motherhood has wrought in me - looking on childhood as our society's most precious asset.
The earthquake took away these children's parents. I don't want it to take away their childhood.
Its been over a week since an earthquake struck Haiti. The dead number in the hundreds of thousands. News coverage has turned from the need for assistance....to how relief agencies are bungling that assistance.
After another particularly depressing story, the NPR announcer came on with something that stuck with me. Children who's parents were killed in the quake have no-one to care for them. Save the Children, one of the relief agencies, is setting up special zones inside the tent cities where children can play in a safe, supervised area.
It was a throw-away line by the announcer. His note was tacked on, like a footnote to this broader coverage. Like many Americans, I have grown tired of Haiti coverage and have begun mentally tuning it out in favor of more pleasant thoughts.
When this announcer started talking about children, all I could see in my mind was PBS, wandering through the chaotic and crushed streets clutching his bunny. No-one to take his hand and feed him, nobody to pick him up if he trips, no one to rock him to sleep at night....
And I started to cry.
These are children. I'm not saying that everyone has to have the latest and greatest of toys and clothing, but everyone should have someone that loves them. When that is cruelly taken away by natural disaster, we stand in danger of loosing ourselves and civilization. Perhaps this is a change that motherhood has wrought in me - looking on childhood as our society's most precious asset.
The earthquake took away these children's parents. I don't want it to take away their childhood.