How are the children?

The story of the eastern Africa Masai  has long addressed the value a society assigns to its children. The story begins with acknowledgement of the Masai-historically considered by many as one of the most accomplished and fabled people of Africa. No tribe had warriors more fearsome or intelligent than the mighty Masai, the story goes. The traditional greeting between Masai warriors?

“Kisserian Ingera”? translated to “How Are the Children”?

The greeting remains today – acknowledging the high value placed on their children’s well-being.

The desired response “Sepati Ingera” – “All the children are well.”

ALL the children are well. The response meant that peace and prosperity prevailed – the priorities of protecting young, powerless and innocent were in place. The Masai had not forgotten its reason for being; its adult functions and responsibilities. The response “all the children are well” meant the daily struggles for existence did not preclude the proper caring for its young.

Proper caring for its young people…

Our children in our country are not being properly cared for. The value of our children is far less than that represented by a community whose daily greeting asks of the children’s welfare – the primary focus for a continuing society. We need to change that value status. We need to invest in our youth. Their voices have risen since the Parkland shootings. As adults it is our time to listen. To support the righteousness of their thinking as they address mass shooting episodes now part of our new world order. We can more wisely protect our children than is being done in today’s United States of America. As a country, we must come together. We need to follow the lead of our childen – a body far smarter and more impacted than any of most adults.

As adults we have failed our children by an unwillingness to respond to these murderous acts in a manner that prevented additional lives to be lost or permanently affected. It is time to let our childen take the political lead on this issue

Please support your local student efforts as they continue to advocate on behalf of students killed, or physically and emotionally traumatized and those 50 million students who continue to attend our 100,000 American public schools. These largely preventable events will require debate about social values – one solution does not apply nor does one reason make for a mass-killer.

Our actions as adults can allow for the answer that “all the children are well’ when we meaningfully come to grips and take the action required to eliminate mass shootings as a part of our social pattern. Our actions can eliminate the discomfort we should feel as a people when we currently and honestly know that poverty, hunger, abuse, neglect, education, health care, trauma, technology access, housing, employment,  drug use, inner city crime and so on adversely impact many of our children. All our children are not well. We need to address that status as a country. Consider our need to get our country back on track caring for each other.

Some sites of note on this topic:

Twitter sites: @AMarch4OurLives; @davidhogg111; #neveragain; #IWillMarch;@cameron_kasky;@Emma4Change;@Elijah-Hawkes; @schoolwalkoutUS; @Tolerance_org;