Suffer The Children....Shame on Adults

"Something's happening here.
What it is ain't exactly clear.
There's a man with a gun over there.
Telling me I got to beware." -Buffalo Springfield

What it is ain't exactly clear but what is clear are the lies and hypocrisy of adults professing to give a damn about the children of this world. From abusive parents, neglectful schools, uncaring social services, eager recruiters for war, Congressmen/women more worried about large stakes contributions to the Pope it is clear children have little importance other than using them as public relations tools.
We can make believe we care about children but why do we continue to allow them to be victims of killers with guns? Why have we failed time and again to implement even the most reasonable and less intrusive forms of gun controls that pale in comparison to the controls in the rest of the world? Why do we continue to allow old men and women to take us to war and sacrifice our youth to failed policies and immoral goals of our wars? Why do we allow children in far away places to be enslaved in sweat shops so we here in America can wear stylish clothing?
We know the sacrificial offerings of children adults implement but turn our eyes away in guilt and shame. Or apathy and the desire not to know about what we do to our children of this world. Since my time in Vietnam I've witnessed the sacrifice of children to the sins of adults. I personally saw death by bombs, death by napalm, death by mortars and artillery, death by gunfire and death by chemicals in a war lacking moral reason.
Since my personal witness I've viewed thousands of photos and videos of the casualties of wars that inevitably include a huge number of children's bodies mutilated by adult implements of death. After so many dead bodies it numbs the mind to the real stories of each individual child killed. The question "Why?" continually runs through my head. Why do we allow this to happen?
The classic adult response to the carnage of children occurred just recently when the families of children killed in the Newtown grade school went to Congress to plead for gun control. They were handing out photos of their beloved children to remind Congress of the moral mandate to do something to control the sale of high powered guns to anybody who wants them. A female Congress person quickly passed the group with the statement, "I'm good" as she refused to take the photos of the dead children the parents were handing out as a reminder of our failure to protect all children.
"I'm good"? How can she be good with the daily carnage of kids from the shores of America to the shores of Africa and Asia? But she represents a culture that's ok with daily violence against children and one that encourages our young to be violent. She represents a culture where those that can afford a good education live in gated communities, go to sheltered schools and have little interaction with those living in stark poverty. The poor get the worst school buildings, largest classes and most out of date learning materials. They're graded by inane political tests meant to "measure" teacher efficiency. They only measure the obvious. If you're poor, hungry and living in gang afflicted neighborhoods learning doesn't occur easily. To add insult to injury the rich school districts doing well in the proficiency tests get rewarded with extra tax dollars while the poor districts get punished.
In war torn nations, ripped apart by sectarian strife, 15th Century type culture keeps young girls and women from going to school. India has daily stories of young women raped by gangs of adult men who seldom face prosecution for their crimes. In fact, the families of the victims are more often ostracized than the predators. One of the latest rapes involved a five year old girl. The response from authorities remains unconcerned.
In Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and numerous other nations the American need for consumer goods leads to child slave labor. The esteemed Apple computer company has most of it's computer hardware put together in such sweat shops. The Jordanesque Nike athletic shoe company has long used the slave labor in nations outside the U.S., the largest buyer of their expensive shoes.
Even in the religious community we find the hypocrisy of concern for the child. The Roman Catholic Church has become notorious for its constant refrain of the intrinsic evil of abortion but continues to back peddle and evade responsibility for pedophiles posing as priests. The new pope, Francis, recently reaffirmed the Church's position against American nuns who he feels put too much emphasis on social justice issues and not enough on the abortion issue. Maybe the good sisters have a clue about the one out of every five children being malnourished and want to do something about it? Maybe they see poor children in every city they serve living without homes, adequate clothing and going to over populated classes?
If the Catholic Church is righteous why haven't they looked at the fact this planet can no longer sustain population growth at the rate it's going right now. The Church's response to this has been loud opposition to all forms of contraception leading poor families to have more children than they can sustain. Leading to hunger and starvation. But at least they didn't prevent child bearing or commit abortion.
The Church also shows its social consciousness by not allowing its relief workers to distribute condoms in HIV ravaged nations. Children born with AIDS seems more important than protection against the HIV virus.
The truth about the Church remains the ugly misogyny it practices in most everything it does. Its obsession with controlling the sex lives of the people, especially women, has reached obscene levels. Its total wealth, hidden around the world and in the Vatican itself, belies the piety and righteousness the Church claims to have . How many children the Church claims to love could the Church feed, clothe and house if it only followed the teachings of Christ? It's clear the Church loves power much more than children or social justice. It's clear the issue of abortion is one way of exerting power over women who still remain faithful to a failed institution.
But, we should not just point fingers at the Catholic Church. We need only look around the world at most of the alleged followers of Christ and other prophets to see their wealth. Huge shrines in forms of cathedrals and mosques rise up in the skies while on the ground millions starve. Money, money, money seems to be the first tenet of the religious communities. Their NGOs coerce and ignore cultures impoverished by violence, drought and the rape of natural resources unless "their way" is followed. Too often the alleged charity work being done has hidden agendas. Too often there are strings attached. The overall results continue to affect the children of the world most.
It's a damn lie the adults of this world care about children. We need only look at the conditions of children around the world to affirm this dirty little secret. The care for children professed by far too many is simply lip service. Ask the people of Haiti. Ask the continent of Africa. Ask the parents in our nation's poor urban areas.