Violence not only issue faced by young people

Years ago, a speaker at a psychology conference I attended questioned whether or not humanity is making progress. He was not referring to technological or even economic progress, but rather moral progress. Are we becoming better and better human beings? I have since then felt reassured by one sign of moral progress — the treatment of children. We concern ourselves with issues like abuse and neglect. We want to provide children with a good education. We are moving away from expecting them to be economic producers during childhood.

At others levels, we are not be making progress when it comes to the care of our children. The March for Our Lives screams of systemic failure. I so admire these young people for marching, protesting, taking action. Yet I feel so very saddened that they need to. How tragic that children of any age need to be so afraid for their safety and also feel as though the adults who are charged with their care don’t really care.

I grieve and fear that there are any number of loaded guns pointed squarely at our children. Among these threats are the rape of the environment, the squandering of natural resources and human-caused climate change. This abuse, neglect and exploitation of our earthly home already disproportionately affect the most vulnerable — namely the poor, older people and children. Moreover, children will inherit the devastation and broken systems for dealing with that devastation. The vulnerable are the ones most suffering from polluted air and water, compromised food production, increased disease, severe weather events, increased global conflict due to environmentally caused wars and immigration, disruption to family, home and education. In short, the lives of children are already badly affected, and predictions for the future are frightening.

These young people, through their voices and actions, are teaching us who are so slow learn to face the issues that are killing us physically, morally and spiritually. In the case of school safety, these young people are not only working for their own safety but to have no other young person go through the same horror. Likewise, with environmental issues, these young people who comprise 27 percent of global population, who may have grown up thinking adults would take care of problems, are throwing themselves into their own future and the future of the planet. They are joining and making a difference in established movements, but many are uniquely their own, A few examples are: Young Evangelicals for Climate Change, UNICEF’s Climate Ambassador Program and We Are the Oceans. They are owning their connective power to digitally launch movements in a matter of days. They are owning their power as consumers, employees, future leaders and voters, and as activists. They are demonstrating the courage of staring into a loaded gun and using that threat to advance true moral progress. NANCY BROWN Bella Vista