In recent weeks, we’ve seen many LOST children’s faces in the news. We’ve also heard a lot of “compassionate talk” about the tragedy of children LOST in the aftermath of the Katrina Hurricane. The limited number of reunions have been touching with reportedly over 2000 children still LOST this week. However, a question that continues to hover in the screaming silence is HOW DID WE LOSE OVER 2000 CHILDREN? The news anchors are not asking this question. Even President Bush with all his photo ops and speeches has yet to acknowledge that so many children were LOST. If BUSH did make such an acknowledgment, there isn’t any evidence, he has asked, in outrage, how the U.S. emergency response system failed these children in such a way that it resulted in them being separated from their families and caretakers. Furthermore, it is recklessly irresponsible that the government-run system was so haphazard that it didn't include documenting where infants, small children and other minors were sent, including disabled children.
Why aren’t we asking this question of ourselves? Personally, I believe it is because it is so shameful. At some level, we hold some of the responsibility, but most of us find ourselves only willing and able to take in talking about the tragedy in the distance and tearing up at the reunions. If we are to look this issue squarely in the face, there is an acceptance of the shame and criminal neglect that resides within us, when we ask the question HOW DID LOSE 2000 CHILDREN? It is a question that requires self-examination and accountability. It asks us to look within ourselves about the decisions we’ve made that may have contributed to putting our children and our families at risk with incompetence, in the name of perhaps party politics or indifference.
HOW MANY OTHER CHILDREN DO WE NEGLECT?
What has hit me hard is that LOST CHILDREN are not unique to the Katrina leadership debacle. There are plenty of other officials and government systems failing our children worldwide. We just don’t hear it or notice it. If we were paying attention, we would be asking many more questions about HOW WE’VE LOST OUR CHILDREN by our indifference and inattention all over the world. Below is just one example that came to me earlier this year. I don’t pretend to understand all about it, but I know that it is wrong. I know the idea of it haunts me. I’m certain few of you know about it or probably would even care. These kinds of injustices go on every day and the most powerful leaders in the world do not stop it... and we don’t stop them. We remain blinded by our own comforts and busy lives:
ONE CHILD'S STORY...
This is Chioma. She is 16. She is Igbo. She lives in Nigeria. She and her family are part of the Movement for Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), a non-violent organization, built on Gandhi’s principles of non-violence. The organization is highly respected with tens of thousands of Biafrans joining in a non-violent pursuit of their dream of actualization of Biafra as a sovereign and independent nation.
In September 2004, in Nigeria, a group of 53 people, including women and children were attending a MASSOB football tournament in a public community park. It had been widely publicized event. During the event, they were rounded up by the Nigerian police, arrested and were in detention for over three months before being charged. Chioma was in jail for 330 days at age sixteen in the most brutal and inhuman conditions for doing nothing but attending a recreational event. The courts later declared the detention unlawful and unconstitutional, but the system did not let go.
Excerpt of a message from her family...
“This is to thank God and to inform you that 16 year old Chioma, the youngest of those the 53 MASSOB Biafrans in Nigerian prison, was let out yesterday evening. She spent 330 days, almost a year behind bars inside the Nigeria, lonely hell-cell. On behalf of her mother, we wish to thank all who offered prayers, protest letters and sent letters of hope. ...Chioma came out yesterday, I saw her in high spirit for Biafra. The experience confirmed her understanding of the need for the movement for Biafra. ...The court clerk came to Chioma to give his apology; he was not a member of the judges or lawyers that may have contributed to her trials of no offense. ...The trial will come 22 September.”
TODAY is September 22. Chioma has been in my mind. I see her face in other children’s faces lost by our inattention or unintentional ignorance. Bravely, growing up much too early.
How do we allow governmental systems and officials to abuse our children anywhere in the world?
Imagine a new world where we can live celebrating our unique cultures in safety, love and goodness---- a world where all children are precious---one where we never allow such neglect and injustice to exist that we lose our children, because of incompetence, thirst for power, exploitation of the vulnerable or cruelty of any government.
With a slight change in our collective consciousness, we can make this happen.
Debbe Kennedy
Learn more about Biafra at www.biafraland.com
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