On Young Children

For many reasons, we were just my granddaughter, my daughter and I for Independence Day yesterday (I realized yesterday that when I was a child that that is what we called it – it’s now Fourth of July.). It was raining, and although that didn’t stop the local New Hampshire residents from shooting off lots of noisy fireworks; it kept us indoors but thoroughly enjoying a hot dog and burger and chips! Yesterday during the two-hour drive to her home, I passed many a family gathering and flags galore; and the usual marches and advertisements on the radio of celebrating our freedom. As a WWII veteran’s daughter and a friend of many who served in Vietnam and Korea, there’s much I could say about any war. But really what I was thinking about is this word bandied about yesterday – freedom. Being passionate about young children; those I serve and those I can only imagine in those war torn places; for me it’s the fact that for those I serve and know – including that little grandbaby – it’s freedom to play in a safe place with safe toys with caring adults looking after you. We, as citizens, are asked by our politicians to honor the warriors there who fight for our freedoms. I wish to honor today those who fight for children’s rights. They do it without adequate funds or supplies; but thank goodness that someone is trying to provide children with freedoms. While I am deeply appreciative of being a US citizen; I am often ashamed that we, “the people” chose to fund wars while children – here and abroad – are homeless, without food, without safe toys, without caring adults.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 5:25 pm and is filed under thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.