There are so many sad stories that you can’t get through a week without multiple jaw-dropping moments where children are being abused. In the last 24 hours, I have read about an online predator who tormented young girls online (leading beautiful Amanda Todd to end her life), a police officer who caged and tortured his son in his basement and a child being removed from a loving foster home of 9 years. That is all without making any effort to find those stories…lord knows how many more happened.
As I was thinking about how tragic it has become it dawned on me, part of the problem is ironically the volume. These tragic events are happening so often that before the public actually absorbs the horror they are exposed to another story. This leads to a couple of very bad outcomes – 1) No single story really gets dealt with before its “upstaged” by the next and 2) We become numb to be shocked by children rights being violated. The first story is very sad for the victims and justice while the second belies huge societal problems that we see manifesting itself around the globe.
Rather than belabour the obvious point I would have one “ask” for everyone who reads this post. Would you be willing to do one thing to support children’s rights in 2017? It could be as simple as a call or letter to your elected official, a donation to a non-profit that you believe in, attending a charity event, promote and share the UN Convention on Children’s Rights or even writing an op-ed to your favourite paper.
If every single adult did just one thing in the next 9 months how much farther ahead might we be? That would be tens of millions of actions! So please consider thinking about and doing just one thing in 2017.
Teagan's Voice 