| A Writing by + Hartley EASTER, 2003 Archbishop Metropolitan, Anglican Church Worldwide |
"They are dying you know?"
We allow them to wear earrings in their ears.
We allow them to wear baggy pants down their backside .
We allow them to wear $100 shoes, while we shop at Payless for our feet, yet none of these children
have a job.
We allow them to eat in their rooms or in front of the TV and not at the dinner table; we listen to
their jive about peer pressure and condone it. We run our daughters to the doctors to buy birth
control pills. We allow them to come home at 10PM on a school night. When others who are
concerned talk to us about our children, we tell them it is none of their business.
There is a young boy in Nashville, Tennessee, when he was 12, I pleaded with his mother not to let
him dress like a thug. I pleaded with her not to let him come home at 1AM, but was not so politely
told it is none of my damned business. I kept him on the Altar as an acolyte, hoping and praying,
that something said would change him, but it was not enough. You see I only got him for two hours a
week, the other 166 he was on his own. When he kept going in and out of Juvenile Jail, like it was a
fraternity project, I pleaded with his uncles (seven of them) to get a grip on him, spend time with
him, but to no avail. Now I have learned that recently he decided to take matters into his own hands
deciding where life ends, not his, but someone else's.
Then I hear these same uncles and his mother was in court every day of trial, they said he was
always dapper in a suit, and appointed shoes, something he never wore to church. I heard how his
mother pleaded with the judge to spare his life, she did, she buried him in a concrete tomb with 6
inch bars # for life without the possibility of parole. He will never walk the streets again, how tragic
he was born in 1981, he will grow old in prison, he will never have children of his own. He will never
have a private room unless he is in solitary, he will never make a decision that he can do what he
wishes when he wishes again. A simple baseball or football game he will never attend. He will never
walk a daughter down the isle or watch a son graduate from high school, his life is not over, but I
ask, what kind of life is this?
Our children are being locked up and dying, each day over 40 teens are murdered in the USA by
other teens. We buy them cars and they go drag racing and kill themselves. Their best literary
phrase, "˜I did not do it", and we as adults concur, "My baby did not do dat".
As a Pastor, it hurts that after all the talking nothing comes from it. I am making more trips to Jails
than high schools graduations, I am making more phone call to lawyers than guidance counselors,
they never call me to say hi, or tell me of their good grades, but I get a host of collect calls from
jails, and I am not sure if they know how expensive it is.
What will we do if our children continue to die this way? I could easily say, oh, I have raised mine
and he is successful today, but I cannot. I must continue to speak out, I must continue to take the
abuse of parents who cannot see their ways and lack of forceful communication are sending their
children to death, if not in the cold ground, in a cemented # tomb with musty blankets, surrounded
by steel # bars, and other assorted characters whose only goal in life is to survive another day.
It is easy to say, let us pray for our children, but St Paul reminds us, that pray without works is
fruitless, and words without action is a waste. We as responsible adults must find a way to bring this
fallacy to an end. We must not try to save the world, but those who we are responsible.
When Sylvia Pulkin in Mississippi gave birth to a beautiful little boy in 1983, she was happy, she
paraded him to her family and friends, he was so cute, she did her best as a single mother, but little
did she know that glorious day in 1983 when she brought life in the world, it would one day end hers
before God'˜s appointed time. You see 16 years later one early summer's morning, when the air was
crisp and the morning sun was about to show it's light, and she was getting ready for work, he
walked into her bedroom and stabbed her 17 times and left her home dying, DEAD. Then, he would
go his high school and killed 2, and wounded 4 more people. He will spend the rest of his life in a 6 X
6 concrete tomb with idle iron # bars, she now is in the cold, cold ground. This was not her dream on
January 10 1983, for her or him. This is not why we bring children in the world to murder others or
us.
It is time for parents to wake up. Every bad deed that is done affect thousands, in the community,
and brings to an end many a promising future.
What will we do if we continue to let the children die?
Can we continue to find excuses one after another, and no solution to the problem?
Then, there is the Church. Our children decide when and if they are going. We leave them home to
sleep, some say they are tired, why is this? Is it because they came home at 1 AM? We buy them
expensive clothes to see Rap artist who comes into town for a night to fill their coffers with our hard
earned currency, but we never buy a piece of clothing for them to come to church. We hear them
recite every word of a raps lyric latest, but do not know the Lord's Prayer or the 23rd Psalm.
Perhaps that is why they are dying. We do not care, but we must you know, they are ours, we
brought them here, we are responsible for them, we must love them, but we must show strict
accountability. We cannot continue to be parents of grandchildren by 14 year old mothers, and keep
up the talk of how cute my baby is.
What will we do if the children die? The future is there for all who will grab it and live to enhance it.
The future will not go away, but for those who ignore it, there will be none, and there will continue to
be DEATH, if not in a barred # cement tomb, in the cold, cold ground.
I ask one last time!
What will we do if the children die?
We allow them to wear earrings in their ears.
We allow them to wear baggy pants down their backside .
We allow them to wear $100 shoes, while we shop at Payless for our feet, yet none of these children
have a job.
We allow them to eat in their rooms or in front of the TV and not at the dinner table; we listen to
their jive about peer pressure and condone it. We run our daughters to the doctors to buy birth
control pills. We allow them to come home at 10PM on a school night. When others who are
concerned talk to us about our children, we tell them it is none of their business.
There is a young boy in Nashville, Tennessee, when he was 12, I pleaded with his mother not to let
him dress like a thug. I pleaded with her not to let him come home at 1AM, but was not so politely
told it is none of my damned business. I kept him on the Altar as an acolyte, hoping and praying,
that something said would change him, but it was not enough. You see I only got him for two hours a
week, the other 166 he was on his own. When he kept going in and out of Juvenile Jail, like it was a
fraternity project, I pleaded with his uncles (seven of them) to get a grip on him, spend time with
him, but to no avail. Now I have learned that recently he decided to take matters into his own hands
deciding where life ends, not his, but someone else's.
Then I hear these same uncles and his mother was in court every day of trial, they said he was
always dapper in a suit, and appointed shoes, something he never wore to church. I heard how his
mother pleaded with the judge to spare his life, she did, she buried him in a concrete tomb with 6
inch bars # for life without the possibility of parole. He will never walk the streets again, how tragic
he was born in 1981, he will grow old in prison, he will never have children of his own. He will never
have a private room unless he is in solitary, he will never make a decision that he can do what he
wishes when he wishes again. A simple baseball or football game he will never attend. He will never
walk a daughter down the isle or watch a son graduate from high school, his life is not over, but I
ask, what kind of life is this?
Our children are being locked up and dying, each day over 40 teens are murdered in the USA by
other teens. We buy them cars and they go drag racing and kill themselves. Their best literary
phrase, "˜I did not do it", and we as adults concur, "My baby did not do dat".
As a Pastor, it hurts that after all the talking nothing comes from it. I am making more trips to Jails
than high schools graduations, I am making more phone call to lawyers than guidance counselors,
they never call me to say hi, or tell me of their good grades, but I get a host of collect calls from
jails, and I am not sure if they know how expensive it is.
What will we do if our children continue to die this way? I could easily say, oh, I have raised mine
and he is successful today, but I cannot. I must continue to speak out, I must continue to take the
abuse of parents who cannot see their ways and lack of forceful communication are sending their
children to death, if not in the cold ground, in a cemented # tomb with musty blankets, surrounded
by steel # bars, and other assorted characters whose only goal in life is to survive another day.
It is easy to say, let us pray for our children, but St Paul reminds us, that pray without works is
fruitless, and words without action is a waste. We as responsible adults must find a way to bring this
fallacy to an end. We must not try to save the world, but those who we are responsible.
When Sylvia Pulkin in Mississippi gave birth to a beautiful little boy in 1983, she was happy, she
paraded him to her family and friends, he was so cute, she did her best as a single mother, but little
did she know that glorious day in 1983 when she brought life in the world, it would one day end hers
before God'˜s appointed time. You see 16 years later one early summer's morning, when the air was
crisp and the morning sun was about to show it's light, and she was getting ready for work, he
walked into her bedroom and stabbed her 17 times and left her home dying, DEAD. Then, he would
go his high school and killed 2, and wounded 4 more people. He will spend the rest of his life in a 6 X
6 concrete tomb with idle iron # bars, she now is in the cold, cold ground. This was not her dream on
January 10 1983, for her or him. This is not why we bring children in the world to murder others or
us.
It is time for parents to wake up. Every bad deed that is done affect thousands, in the community,
and brings to an end many a promising future.
What will we do if we continue to let the children die?
Can we continue to find excuses one after another, and no solution to the problem?
Then, there is the Church. Our children decide when and if they are going. We leave them home to
sleep, some say they are tired, why is this? Is it because they came home at 1 AM? We buy them
expensive clothes to see Rap artist who comes into town for a night to fill their coffers with our hard
earned currency, but we never buy a piece of clothing for them to come to church. We hear them
recite every word of a raps lyric latest, but do not know the Lord's Prayer or the 23rd Psalm.
Perhaps that is why they are dying. We do not care, but we must you know, they are ours, we
brought them here, we are responsible for them, we must love them, but we must show strict
accountability. We cannot continue to be parents of grandchildren by 14 year old mothers, and keep
up the talk of how cute my baby is.
What will we do if the children die? The future is there for all who will grab it and live to enhance it.
The future will not go away, but for those who ignore it, there will be none, and there will continue to
be DEATH, if not in a barred # cement tomb, in the cold, cold ground.
I ask one last time!
What will we do if the children die?
| What Will We Do if the Children Die? |
