Loving children (part two)

There is a virtual picture of a sad-looking, barefoot, half-naked boy in a dirty t-shirt with an inscription: "I can be president!" It is a moving picture that speaks a thousand words. Looking at that picture, I thought about Yoweri Museveni as a child; a pastoralist's son in the grazing fields with his enkoni, watching to ensure no cow strays. Today he is the president; the most important person in the country! How about Barack Obama? A skinny black boy growing up without his father, in a country with such deep-rooted racism that for long it was inconceivable for a black person to become president there. Yet today he is!

All important people come from children

Yes, that dirty child can become president too. All great people come from children. Sadly, today's child is not enjoying as much protection and guidance as children of past generations. They are left at the mercy of the househelp who often is untrained and so miserably paid that they have no interest in the job beyond enjoying the free food and free entertainment beamed by the plasma screen in the house. One rich single mother returned home early and found her house boy watching gay pornography with her seven-year-old son.

The abandonment and neglect of children starts with adults acting without considering the consequences of their actions. Man sleeps with woman, makes her pregnant, denies responsibility. Embittered woman
delivers child, raises child with more bitterness, child grows up rootlessly and is lucky not to turn into a dangerous dopehead.

Let the purpose of adults be to raise children into what they are created to become. That will be my discussion next Sunday --looking at how to reach that child and change the future.