Nailla Johnson was found–alive, hiding under a bleacher in the January cold.
More than anything I am grateful she is alive.
But I am not above raising strong questions about child safety at school. Everyday millions of Americans send their children to school assuming that their children will be safe.
Not a safe assumption anymore.
What will you do about it?
I am up late praying for a little girl who is my son’s age. My heart and my prayers are with her and I pray that she is safe and unharmed.
If you know where she is, call the police. Just call 911 and tell them.
If you have her, leave her at a hospital or fire station. Just keep her safe and get her home quickly.
Please.
Once a very wise person lost a child. Maybe children. He mourned because he loved them. so he came up with a plan. Put fire in the sky to guide them at night. Put smoke in the sky to guide them by day. Give them rules on something durable to keep them safe. Tell them from the beginning that you have a plan. Don’t worry, a plan of love.
Send messengers to remind them. Send someone like a son to find them. Document who you are and who they are. Leave a record of your love. Do everything because they are everything to you.
Understand that the story they are told about you may not be all true. Understand they may not want you in the end. Understand that no matter what no matter where no matter how, you will always love them. Because you are their dad. Because it is your nature.
Oh yeh, and write a book. Tell them in the book how much you love them. Pray they read it. Because it means everything.
If what i do ever seems a little crazy, remember that I am following that guy, that Wise Guy, so that one day I can tell my daughter face to face…
I have always loved you.
Imagine for a second planning a plane trip on September 1st 20001. Think about the beverages and nail clippers you would have blithely stowed in your carry-on luggage.
You would not have had to remove your shoes! You also would have had no fears of homicidal acts of terror. The world changes, we have to face its incipient danger.
I mention 9-11 because we all acknowledge that a balance has to be struck between personal freedom and public safety. None of us wants a world constricted by fear.
That being said, it is time to acknowledge that we are failing our children and ourselves. When our children cannot walk to school in safety we have failed our children. When our children are being lured and snatched in front of schools, hospitals, and libraries in daylight we have failed our children. When one child is lost in one of these cases it should be a cause of universal mourning and rapprochement. It is time for a change.
Parents need to face that law enforcement and “living in a safe place” will not keep our children from harm. We need to look at what predators do and how they think. None of us want to, but we must.
Predators
Live everywhere and if they don’t live close to you, they have cars
Watch children
Monitor patterns of movement
May record and photograph children
Maintain contact with other predators, gaining support and information from others
Have no conscience
Will resort to violence to get what they want
Will lie about everything
Monitor/keep track of what children believe and respond to
Disguise themselves well
Volunteer or work at jobs that give them contact with children
Fool people around them
And are fueled as much by anger as by sexual impulses
Not a fun list, but we must face it. And we have to face the fact that most predators do not get caught or reported. They are “us” and pride themselves on the deception.
They benefit when we ignore them. So let’s not.
And we have to keep our children safe. Many of us remember great freedom when we were young. That freedom is no longer safe. Adults need to stay with children outside all the time. We cannot assume a short walk to school or a park is safe. It is not.
We need to face the hard stories of loss and learn from them. Elizabeth Smart was forcibly abducted by a day laborer. Jaycee Dugard was snatched by a married couple who had tracked her and planned her kidnapping with great detail. Jessica Ridgeway was taken on a short walk to school.
if you are a parent you have to face these stories to keep your child safe.
And we have to teach our children:
If a grown up offers you candy from a vehicle
scream and run for help
No adult needs your help finding a puppy
scream and run
never go anywhere with an adult you don’t know/strong>
We need to give our children permission to defend themselves. We need to teach them self defense and also strategies for escape if the worst happens. And we have to talk about the unthinkable. Our children are irreplaceable. We have to keep them safe. Knowledge is power.
A giant multinational furniture company decides to erase images of modestly attired women to appease Saudi Arabian autocracy. And where is the outcry from women all over the world?
Feminism is dead. If not dead, useless, if this egregious act of dehumanizing women produces no response from us.
I went to the company website to protest and was directed to ask “Annie” a question.
I won’t be surprised if she doesn’t answer. She has probably been erased.
I ask him
Do you ever want to eat a
Peanut butter sandwich
Not because you are hungry
But because you are
Sad?
Yes. He says
And somehow this helps
Not because he is thin
And I am not
No.
Because the loss
The sandwich cannot heal
Must be faced
Hungry.
What if I lost you?
What if you were not there?
What if one moment I saw you
And then blink
You
Were
Gone?
I ask myself these questions
With every beat of my heart
Knowing I have walked down these lonely roads before
Looking for the babygirlchild
Woman
I lost that day
no replacements found.
Imagine a box
A brightly colored box
Like a present/
Like a gift
Something inside of it
Calling you to life
Christmas morning and all your birthdays
It was the birthdays that got me
The little girl alone in the hospital with army issue socks?
Tragic.
Life is tragic.
But we can all use socks…
You taught me to love
And risk myself
be brave child,
You whispered
Open the box.
Treasure inside.
I promise.
no.
all the bodies
of water in texas
run to the sea
run to the words
of our ancient creed
the body of a man
downed–
corpus Christi
his mother, a lake
and the sound of an island
Father…
maybe I love them…
because of the Jesuits
because Spanish is a mother tongue
Corpus Christi, Padre Island, Laguna Madre…
all the rivers flow to the sea
all the beautiful rivers–
the Trinity used to be my favorite
even when it would flood
and desperate men would sand bag it
or flee for higher ground
but there are other rivers now
that haunt my memory,
the Guadalupe, for instance
means–
girl comes from wolves
from the valley of wolves
spreads foreign roses at my feet
there is no “g” or “d” in my native language
but then maybe Juan Diego himself was just a phantom
like the pings off a cell
tower
electrical beacons conspiring
with sound
looking for a lost son
what river do you cross
to enter Texas?
and what river do you cross
to leave it?
go down to that River that runs to the sea
and find my boy,
all our lost children
Come Home.
d
once wrote
about
a counterpane
of fish
living
fish–
a dream
breathed into life by a
quilter
and a Man
who says
I will make you
fishers
of men
all these years later
I walk all the edges
of another woman’s storm
the signal tracks
from the
coast of Texas
all the way to the Pacific
crossing fast
too fast
toward winter…
Australia?
can you be there?
already?
that is what I would think if I were your mother
I would search the shore,
each map
the satellite
dropped pins
and the faces of
friends and strangers
for signs of my missing
son.
Carrying Light 