Children and violence
If I told you my son drew the picture to the left, you might be disturbed. You might consider the fact that my son is a 10 year old fourth grader. As the neurons in your brain fired, you would have to reconcile the sheer violence in the picture with the experiences of a silly fourth grader. What does the picture say about his life?
Sure, you could chalk it up to his over abundance of imagination, but, quietly, in the back of your mind, the details might touch you where alarms can’t be silenced. Your eyes would dart feverishly, feeding details to your brain. Though you might be calm, your pulse would quicken and you would start mentally listing who you could call. The detail of the black guns, the curved clips, the wooden handles and the bursting muzzle fire would shake you. You would continue the silent debate over whether to call for help or mind your own business.
Indecisive, you wouldn’t call anyone as you continued looking desperately, frantically for reassurance that everything was ok. And this was all a joke. I would be sad to inform you that this drawing is not a joke. Who could you tell? Who could make sense of it? Who could explain it away?
You would hope this was a normal child expressing a vivid imagination. But we both know, the imagination birthed by crayons couldn’t explain the clarity of vision and the details of destruction clutched between your sweaty fingers. The crimson shades awkwardly registering against the neutral grays tell you something is very wrong. Not only because it exists, but because of its abundance. Like it, the number of bullets ricocheting across the paper would leave a lump in the pit of your stomach.
After you looked at the paper you could ignore the voice in your head, or you could do something. What would you do?
The picture above was actually drawn by a child in Chad as part of Drawings of Genocide. Young children caught in the chaos of war see things we wouldn’t let American children see on TV. But know that WE know it isn’t a child we know, does it make a difference? If so, why?
I am humbled to know where I’ve been placed and despite a shaky economy, and a shrinking dollar, my kids draw pictures I can hang in my office or on the fridge. Hopefully, God willing, we can make a difference for someone else’s child so they can draw beautiful pictures of life and not gruesome scenes of death.
Here is how you can help children of Genocide in Darfur and other countries. I hope that anyone might take a small stand, no matter how small it is to bless someone else’s child with a brighter future. You can take a peek at:
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