We put so much emphasis on words as if they make all the difference. You can listen to the same words, be on two different sides of an argument and twist them to support your cause. There is this meme going around on social media. It goes something like this… and clearly we know where people are being lead.
If your child hits another child with a stick do you:
A) Take away the stick
B) Give everybody sticks
C) Give certain kids sticks who are able to protect everyone else
If we were really being honest and applying this to real life, I do believe we would need to insert choice d.
D) Cut down all trees and remove sticks so no one has the opportunity to hit another child with one again or remove all sticks that are light enough for kids to pick up and hit with.
If I was really just answering this question innocently and we were really talking about the situation posed as a question, I would punish the child. The child would need to learn that hitting is unacceptable period. We can’t make the mistake of the child thinking hitting with sticks is bad when it is the action of hitting that is bad. My point here is this. I’ve had friends who have removed “bad toys” that do not share. That child never learned to share and every child was punished by having the bad toy taken away that wasn’t bad at all. The child who didn’t share was the problem and maybe shouldn’t have been allowed to play if he wasn’t going to share. We can’t talk in circles. We have to get honest and real and stop trying to win an argument that reoccurs every time a tragedy occurs. We blame this and that and promise change and what do we get? Fighting words and anger until we become absorbed in our own lives again and forget until it happens again. I don’t have any answers but I know this for sure. I am looking for real solutions that schools can put in place right now to keep our babies safe. I will not argue and fight over politics or stupid memes anymore to further divide my country and destroy relationships because I do not believe anyone in Washington is selfless enough to make any necessary changes we need. There are things we can do now without Washington while we pick out our gravestones waiting for them to pass a solution that’s never going to come in time and probably never going to come at all. Why can’t people stop the senseless fighting and come together to do what we can do ourselves along with our schools before one of us has to bury a child again? Rise up. Rise above and make a difference that will really matter. If this was really about protecting our kids, we would find a solution that works and stop driving down roads that are dead ends.
anewperspectiveperhaps 