Just a generation ago it was this sound that could be heard in
every turn, in every town. It was the sound of love that echoed
in the living room when a father giggled with his son or a
mother tickled a small infant child. It was the sound of love
that echoed from children's literacy classics as the
parents read children dreamy tales before they went to bed. And
it was the sound of love that reverberated in their dinner
conversations. Between parents and children, not just once a
year over turkey and stuffing, but everyday for peace and
prosper.
Sadly, that sound has become a lost melody, a forgotten
refrain, an empty tune and all we have in its place today is a
dark and terrible noise. Instead of dinner conversations, there
is the noise of video games. Instead of homework, there is the
din of the evening news. And instead of regular conversations
between parents and children about drugs and violence, there is
the deafening sound of silence.
Who among us would have believed that the sound of children at
their playgrounds would be replaced by the sound of automatic
machine-gun fire at our schools? that the sound of little girls
skipping rope would be overshadowed by the franctic squeals of
children dodging bullets? Yet, instead of loving our children
more, we install metal detectors in our schools.
Are we blind to the fact that our children are raging against
the indifference, crying out against the abandonment or
thundering against the neglect?
'Heal The Kids' is about doing something, about making
a difference and trying to help adults and parents realize that
it's in our power to change the world that our children
live in. As a wise man once said, "If not us, then who; if
not now, when?"
My friends, with two children of my own, I know what it means
to have to balance the demand of family and career. [...] I
truly hope that the thoughts expressed tonight will inspire all
of us to love our children with all our hearts and
souls."
[Michael Jackson in his
speech at the launch of "Heal The Kids", a "Heal
The World Foundation" initiative aimed at educating
occupied adults to reprioritize their children. (2001)]
-
And how anyone in their right mind
even suggest that this man was capable of hurting a child, is
beyond me. He was an Angel.
R.I.P Mike. Gone but never forgotten.
1958 - Forever.
♥
