My dad did a blog recently on the dangers of borrowing from future generations, using a very sad-looking photo of his grandson, aka, my baby, Shane. The blog in question can be found here. Dad thinks that this stimulus package is going to rob his grandson of his financial future, or at least, that's how I read it.
I tend to think there are more than one ways of looking at most things, and if we are going to use kids to make our arguments for government's non-involvement, we might as well learn something about these kids' perspective on things.
A few weeks ago Shane came home from school bordering on tears. He is an overly dramatic child, but hardly ever cries, so the tears tend to be genuine. It turns out a girl named Jade who sat next to him since the beginning of the school year is going to be homeless. She told Shane, because she wanted to share with someone. The teachers and the administration of the school have no idea... She was told not to tell anyone.
Every day, Jade gets on the bus and goes to school and reads about elephants trouncing through the African plains, and tries to remind herself that it is, indeed, imperative for her to remember what 7X8 is at all cost. The FCAT that all kids have to start taking in 3rd grade is coming up, and if she fails any of the subjects on it, she'll be held back for a year. She has always been a good student. She is a smart kid. She doesn't cry, but Shane knows that she is scared. They lost their home to foreclosure, and now they are just waiting to be thrown out. They have all their stuff in boxes, Jade's, her mom's and her little brother's. Her mom works two jobs, both paying less combined than what they need to survive...
Yesterday, Shane and I were talking about school and stuff, and he told me he took some money to Jade. See, Shane works, in a manner of speaking. He does chores for an ailing older lady living across the street from us, and the lady pays him, at times, rather generously. Shane uses the cash for gifts and trinkets, but doesn't really have a concept of saving it yet. He didn't ask me for help for his friend. He didn't need authorization of any kind to help someone he cares about. What he did ask was why nobody seems to know or care that this family will be homeless.... He then told me that when he was sent to run an errand to the extended day program's room, there were cots on the floor with some kids sleeping on them.... He told me he was glad they had a safe place to sleep.
I don't live in the projects or some rundown dilapidated neighborhood. I live in what most would deem to be quintessential middle class suburbia. Up until a few years ago, it was one of the best places to move to. It was also the fastest growing county in the country. There were no homeless children in Palm Coast. There was no need for my son to worry whether or not his friend is sleeping on the street.
If Shane understood the intricacies of the economy; if he was able to analyze all the implications of the stimulus package, and even disagreed with some of the provisions, I think he would choose to pay it forward, so that some of the sadness and suffering he sees around him is alleviated. Failure is indeed, both inevitable and necessary. I'd rather my kids failed as economists than as people... For allowing me to see my kids' reactions to injustice and indignity and their compassion for their fellow men - thank you Mr. Bush, cause god knows if it were not for the massive screw-ups on all levels, my kids may have been just normal kids, without a care in the world...
How much is a child's innocence worth?
Copyright (C) 2008, inna hardison. please, don't steal from the starving artists, it's illegal and well, just plain freakin' wrong!
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What a heart wrenching story. You are raising one very special young man!!
Happy Thursday!!
Lori