POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS
Wouldn’t it be lovely, though? If every child was a peaceful child … By that I mean a child who lives without being exposed to violence. A child who knows that their home and their school, their streets and stores are safe. Most of all a child who feels like a valuable human being — and so is at peace with herself or himself. Yes, wouldn’t it be lovely?
Every child deserves a peaceful, loving childhood
he Humanity Project has just joined the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, a collection of organizations that share one goal: To promote sensible gun laws and gun violence prevention. Visit the website of the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence. The coalition is organized and led by the League of Women Voters of Florida and if you check out their website, you’ll find the Humanity Project listed among its members. The Coalition already has some wonderful accomplishments, helping to block laws such as Campus Carry and Open Carry that would have made guns more prevalent in Florida. Now we’re all working to ban assault weapons and expand background checks.
You may ask yourself, “How does this fit the Humanity Project’s mission – and the goal of ‘helping kids to help kids’?” We believe it does because kids need a peaceful society, free of gun violence, to grow into responsible and healthy adults. A violent world only encourages fear, self-obsession, anger and ultimately more violence. We see it in the headlines every week lately. The young men who killed in places such as Orlando and Dallas and Nice were not people who had peaceful childhoods. They grew up frightened and angry. And they became violent as a result.
So the Humanity Project Board of Directors does indeed believe that preventing the spread of guns is well within the appropriate mission for the Humanity Project. Our focus continues to be on anti-bullying and safe driving and teaching the value of diversity and self-value through peer-to-peer programs. But kids need help from adults to accomplish these things. And now they need our help to limit gun violence too, so they can mature surrounded not by violence and hatred but by peace and love.
