Just an Education…..Please

Events happening around our world, once again, make me reflect on just how fortunate I am. Where I was born, the parents who raised me, where I lived, where I went to school, the friends I made over the years, the man I chose to marry, the two terrific children we raised together. Our jobs, our homes, our pets, our "things", our together adventures.

I am aware that much of this starts out as completely random chance - which sperm hits which egg to get the whole story started. But then choice enters the picture and it's the choices that my parents made for me….and then those that I made as an adult….added to an element of luck that determined my fortunate life.

Over the years of active parenting I remember sending my kids off to school, first our son, and then our daughter and worrying about things like "did they get their homework done?", "will they eat their carrot sticks with lunch?", "will they have a good day?", "will the teacher recognize their individual needs and their special talents?", "will they make friends?"

I never once had to wonder "will they and their classmates be kidnapped from school today…taken away from us to some unknown destination and denied a future?" All because they wanted to learn. All because their parents wanted a better life for them. All because another adult had the power to decide that they did not have this right….that what they were learning was  a threat….that what the teacher presented was against a specific doctrine or religious philosophy.

It's hard to wrap my brain around this….and frankly it brings tears to my eyes when I even try to imagine the resulting heartache for moms, dad, grandparents, siblings, family, friends.  It's happening again, in the name of "religion" interpreted wrongly, in the name of "me against you", in the name of "if you get some I might not have enough"……in the name of "you can't have your chance at education…..because I don't agree with what you are learning and that is a threat to me".

The things I take for granted….the things that are just "normal" to me….the things that so many, in so many other neighborhoods and countries would give anything to have. The things I take for granted.