Outrage and sadness fill my heart, so many miles away. We are citizens in a world of thousands of abducted children, displaced children, and children killed in wars their adults initiate. I ask myself if children are voluntarily Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Catholic, Israeli, Palestinian, Russian, Ukrainian, American, British, Spanish, Hispanic, African, Indian, Saudi, Iranian, Lebanese, etc. I think since children are born with no ability to agree to membership in any organization, institution, or religion, they deserve the right to the world’s protection until they can make their own free choices. Don’t they give all? Don’t they exchange in totality all they have every day: not a percentage, not college saving funds, nor social security, tax deductions, disposable income, or retirement savings, just for the right to live until adulthood and conscious citizenship?

Every day, children throw all they have into the arena to be divvied up by their adults who have forgotten what it used to be like to give your all without holding back.

And now, mercy is what we need. Mercy is what we must learn to generate for children who have no affiliation.

Mercy for the children first! We adults must make collective decisions that show mercy for the world’s most vulnerable citizens. Mercy for all children, first!!

Emillie Novak

Eastsound