Give Them Peace of Mind

As we come to the anniversary of the Beslan incident, my thoughts go to all the children across the world.

Children...

The symbolism of innocence, of immortality, of purity...

How could anyone wish to foster anything but beauty in young minds, wish to see anything but joy and wonderment in trusting eyes?

What type of world are we leaving them? What examples are we setting them?

Is anyone bothering to ask:

• how many more children will die from starvation like those in Niger,
• how many more child soldiers will be killed in Liberia,
• how many more Iraqi children will be psychologically ruined for many more generations,
• how many more suicide bombers are being born in a culture created by the Israeli government dehumanising Palestinians and the Palestinian terrorists using the disenchanted youth as new recruits for their bloody war, and
• how many more children will be caught between the battles of politicians and mercenaries, as the children of Beslan?

We have a great responsibility to these small people, a responsibilty to protect, to love, to educate, to nurture them...and we also have a second responsibility, just as important.

We must not only leave them a legacy within themselves, we must leave them a legacy without...we must work to leave them a world to inherit that is without intolerance or hatred, a world without the scars that we have selfishly carved into the soil and the sky.

The weather across the world is changing due to global warming with scientists predicting rises in freak weather incidents, including floods and heatwaves. Yet, not enough emphasis is being made of the fact that we are still abusing our environment. In so far as the G8 summit was useless on the subject of poverty in Africa, it was even more impotent when it came to the environmental dangers facing our children.

Tarkan gives the message well in his music video for his song "Verme" (Don't Give), when he becomes a mouth piece for children as he sings "Don't give me a piece of your mind/Give me peace of mind..." *

From whatever colour, whatever creed, whatever religion, children are children. They are all of our futures.

Humanity's only claim to sovereigty over death is its ability to procreate. Children are our immortality. We shall live through them.

In hurting these perfect human beings, we are killing ourselves and in hurting the world that we shall to leave them, we are killing them.

Top image courtesy of Ali Yildirim | *Translation by Ali Yildirim

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