FRIENDS ONLY!
"Upon returning home from Antarctica, I read of a news story.
In the state of Michigan a young boy was removed from his abusive household and placed in the foster care system.
One day after school, the staff found him trying to hide in the school to avoid going home to his foster parents.
He begged and pleaded with the school principal to let him stay at school.
He promised that he wouldnt make a mess, and he wouldnt be too much trouble.
The school staff sent him home to his foster family though.
After the boy didnt return to school for several days, the police went to his home.
They found the boy's body in a trash bag in the garage.
He had been beaten to death with a hammer.
It is with a heavy heart that I confess to you all, that I am very familiar with the devastating results of a childhood of abuse.
Children who are abused grow into insecure adults feeling unworthy of love and they become saboteurs of their own successes and relationships.
These sad truths are testament to the fact that we all reside in a culture that is addicted to violence and riddled with neglect.
Websters dictionary defines Vanguard as "The forefront or epicenter of a social or political movement".
Only in a society that is choking on an epidemic of violence would a vanguard be needed so badly.
My question is, Why not us?
Why not me and why not you?
A young boy is beaten and dies.
A whale swims with her children only to be the recipient of a harpoon with an explosive tip.
She thrashes and bleeds out for thirty long minutes, in front of her family before she dies.
Her lifeless body yields record profits for a giant company's stock-holders.
These industrial goliaths, while in pursuits of their profits, routinely pollute
the very water we drink,
the air that we breathe,
and the soil that is pregnant with our food.
And as a result cancer slowly and painfully diminishes our friends and family.
These companies are allowed to kill us as a direct result of our very own apathy.
A lack of commitment,
a lack of compassion,
and a lack of regard.
A driver strikes down our friend with her car.
She leaves him for dead in the road.
A lack of commitment,
a lack of compassion,
and a lack of regard.
There is a black widow's web of connectivity and we are all drawn together by its silky strands.
Each strand represents a social ill of our broken society.
These things.
These violences.
They are connected.
Anyone of us, will say that we are opposed of child abuse and neglect.
Anyone of us, will stand right here and claim that is just plain wrong to hit a person with a car and leave him broken on the street.
Anyone of us, will state that we are opposed to corporate irresponsibility causing cancer and destroying the planet.
Lets face the truth, its going to take more than that.
We need to actively combat these crimes against humanity.
We need to be vanguards.
Each and everyone of us needs to step out of our comfort zone, and directly confront the devil.
Only love beats the demon.
Ill say it again, only love beats the demon.
We need to reinforce our scene, and strengthen each other.
I teach you today, and you save me tomorrow.
Through kindness, and education, you and I can be the pillars of a healthier society.
Dont let me be your acquaintance, let me be your friend.
Dont let me be your friend, let me be your brother.
Why not us?
Why can't we lead the way?
Why can't we set an example for the broken world to follow?
Why can't we return to our instincts of improving the planetary standards?
Why can't we return to a state of respect and compassion for animals, earth, women, children, and each other?
Why can't we start today?
Can we stop calling each other "faggots" and "gay"?
Can we not refer to women as "bitches" and "sluts"?
Can we be the bricks and mortar of a wall of non-violence, and kind and compassionate actions?
A new way of eating, thinking, and living?
Growth, peace, and a better scene and a better world start with us.
Its not enough to feel opposed to the issues.
Its not enough to be in our comfort zone.
That very comfort zone, will shrink at the same rate that society decays.
Exactly how comfortable can we all be, when the lives around us fall like dominoes?
Last month, a father was drawing a bath for his two young sons.
And while the story starts out like a normal evening, for a normal family, the truth is far more tragic.
The father, after turning on the water, returned to another part of the house.
It was there that he and the boys mother continued their all-day heroin binge.
Poverty-stricken, this family, lived in a home of disarray and disrepair.
Not only was this family broken, but the door to the bathroom was broken as well.
The father, in his drug-induced state, didnt realize, that the water he was filling the tub with was boiling hot.
With the door broken, these two brothers ages 3 and 6, were trapped in a room that filled with scalding hot water.
These boys didn't drown.
They were burned to death.
As my eyes welled up at the horror of this story, I did realize there is something to be taken from this.
As the boys bodies were found, it was discovered that the older of the 2 died holding his younger brother's naked body over his head in and attempt to save him.
Even though the parents will go to prison, our whole society pays the price.
In this instance the price was the lives of 2 young boys.
Ages 3 and 6.
As children, we have the instinct to protect and save, just like these brothers did with each other.
Let's unlearn the apathy that keeps us from saving each other.
Let's find our inner child. The same child that holds up another from danger.
We can fix things. We can make a difference in the world.
You can.
I can.
We can.
We can be vanguards."
Speech Given by Jeff Watkins at the 2006 Syracuse Sing-a-long.
♥
Vanguards Only!
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