Teach Your Children Well...

Since I've started this blog there have been several times that I wanted to write about something that people would likely disagree with, you know, stir up a little controversy (my FAVOURITE word to hear spoken in a British accent...Con-tra-vasee)

Maybe wanting to write about controversial things isn't what I mean. In fact, I guess I haven't wanted to write about them. I've thought and felt things that would likely cause disagreement/controversy were I to blog about them and I've quickly dismissed them as blog fodder.
Strangely enough, I wouldn't say that I shy away from difficult conversations in which people disagree. I don't seek them out either, but I don't pretend to be Polly Peacemaker. I'm pretty sure the reason I shy away from such content is because I fear misunderstanding on the part of a reader and then subsequent judgment based on that misunderstanding. In this forum, there isn't much opportunity to clarify or emphasize with tone or expression, etc.

I say all of that to say this, I finally feel moved enough to say something that people probably won't like. Look at this picture below. It was posted today on by the Guardian, a British newspaper.


-Ramallah, West Bank: Palestinian boys play with toy guns in the Al-Amari refugee camp

The instant I saw this picture, I felt nauseous. My brain registered something so base and vile that I had a physical reaction. Then I felt immensely sad. These children are playing, imitating murder, death, violence. The shadow of the child in the lower left corner seems to show an upturned cheek, as if he is smiling. Enjoying the macabre game. He probably is. He's a kid. It's fun to run around and chase people and "get" them. It's harmless. It's natural.

I'm sad because these children don't have much chance to realize that their
harmless, kid-game and the adult reality of their environment don't have to be the same. They play a game this way because this is what they know as an acceptable and realistic way of life. Who tells them that it's never ok to kill anyone regardless of anything they say or feel or do? How can they be expected to know such things if they don't consistently see this modeled for them in their lives? They can't, certainly. There's little to no hope for children in this circumstance.