The Deaths of Children

And what do we do now about the deaths of American children besides expressing our profound disbelief and sorrow? What do we do now about the deaths of children elsewhere in the world?

Do we mourn the deaths of children in Palestine and Israel, in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Sudan and Rwanda, in Nigeria and Somalia, in Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone, in Ethiopia and Eritrea, in Liberia and Colombia, in Chechnya, Syria, and Indonesia, and elsewhere in the world the way we grieve for our own children?

Is it our nationalistic fervor that condemns us to not care about the world’s children the way we care about our own...? Is it our wealth and privilege that insulates us from the deaths of children elsewhere in the world?

Think about the children elsewhere in the world and how many of them are dead because of our country’s and many other nations' political and economic interests and expediencies. Until we make everyone the object of our moral concern, we remain accomplices with hypocrisy and indifference. 

-Glen Brown

“Globally, just over 1 billion children under the age of 18 live in countries or territories affected by armed conflict—almost one sixth of the total world population. Of these, approximately 300 million are under the age of five” (Machel Study 10-Year Strategic Review: Children and Conflict in a Changing World p. 19).