Instructions

Toronto 8 (2013. 10.27), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


      Instructions for living a life:
     Pay attention.
     Be astonished.
     Tell about it.

        Mary Oliver

Children & War

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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

The time has come to make the protection of children – all our children – a common cause that can unite us across the boundaries of our political orientation, religious affiliation and cultural traditions. We must reclaim our lost taboos, and make the abuse and brutalization of children simply unacceptable.

*   *   *

But today, to paraphrase the poet W.B. Yeats, things have fallen apart, the moral centre is no longer holding. In so many conflicts today, anything goes. Children, women, the elderly, granary stores, crops, livestock – all have become fair game in the single-minded struggle for power, in an attempt not just to prevail but to humiliate, not simply to subdue but to annihilate the “enemy community” altogether. This is the phenomenon of total war.

Olara Otunnu, Ugandan 2011 Presidential Candidate

Care

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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Unless someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.

Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Role model

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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Children have more need of models than critics.

Joseph Joubert