Children of the World

What is happening to our children? Or rather, what is happening with parenting in this day and age?

All over the news right now, are a couple of incidents that occurred recently. One, a father who, in a drunken state supposedly, dragged his 1 1/2 and 3 year old girls, in only t-shirts and panties/diapers into the -50 weather to freeze to their deaths. It might not have been intentional, but tell me why it had to happen? What did those two little girls do to deserve that?

Another, was a 23 year old girl with autism, who was left to starve to death by her sister. This sister, her guardian is being charged with manslaughter. She made this girl sleep on particle board, with a deflated air mattress covered in her feces. This girl went from 200 lbs to 85 lbs when she was found. How could anyone do this? What did this girl, who had the mind of a 3 year old, do to deserve to die with such indignity? It breaks my heart.

Yet another, an 8 month old baby girl, left on the cold cement in a parkade. Thankfully, she didn't have to die, but why was she left there in the first place?

These are only a couple of the millions of monstrosities being stowed on our world's children. And maybe these hit me so hard because they are here, in Canada where we are supposedly the more advanced culture. How can I believe that?

Another thing to think about is what we bestow on our children as far as beauty goes. What is wrong with us, when a 7 year old refuses to wear a winter coat because it makes her look fat? What??? This girl I heard about was 7. She should have been worried about the size of the snowman she was going to make, or the next time she could go out on her sled. Not what she was wearing or how she looked.

We have this huge responsibility to raise our children. They are our future, and we are in a position of extreme power. But why do some people end up destroying the gifts of our future? I look into the eyes of my children, and I am so thankful for them. I want to protect them from all of this, and to shelter them. But I am being naive. I need to educate them, that is their best defense.

Kung Fu can help me with that, I am sure. It can help me to teach them that every person deserves to be treated with respect, the values of being a good person with peaceful intentions. It can help me teach them to accept people and their cultures, and to ultimately respect themselves. It can help me teach them that beauty comes from within, not from what you see on the outside. Our art flows from the inside to the outside, and from the outside to the world around us.

I can make a difference through my kids. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But one day I will have left my mark, and so will they.