WHERE IS LOVE?
In the middle of the 19th century, the great British author Charles Dickens wrote the graphic tale 'Oliver Twist'. The story of an orphaned boy and his struggle simply to be loved. Roughly 100 years later Lionel Bart used the book as the basis for the magnificent musical play 'Oliver'. At one part in the play, when all seems lost, Oliver sings the wistful song which begins...
"Where is love? Does it fall from skies above?
Is it underneath the willow tree that I've been dreaming of?"
Now, as the 20th century draws to a close I cannot help but ponder on the accuracy of Oliver's song, for I believe that our human race has almost lost that truly great emotion and has replaced it with a feeling of callous indifference. Indifference for the feelings of others and indifference for the lives of others. It is time we changed the direction we are travelling and retraced our steps so that we may again achieve that feeling of love for all mankind and caring for others. If we do not, then we will all be "Olivers", wondering where our love has gone and where will we find it again.
Those of my generation, who, in their struggle for power, domination, and money, have failed to take the lead in returning to the decency of love and caring, must now acquiesce to those younger, such as some of the other Virtual Madmen here in these pages, and realize that these young folk do not want to inherit the mess we have left them. They have started the move to bring love, kindness, and compassion back into our lives and with that I must give them my fullest support. We must stop treating our children as just another possession and treat them for what they are - young human beings who are trying very hard to make the right decisions for themselves and perhaps create a better life for themselves. They deserve our compassion, understanding, love, and our gentle guidance to help them as they struggle to grow into responsible, caring adults.
One of the greatest tragedies of the human species is the incredible inhumanity of the race, especially where children are involved. Yes, there is a certain element of 'protection of the young' and this can be very strong. However, mankind's need for self preservation and the protection of the now will overcome the need to protect the future. Children are expendable commodities, especially if their demise will assist in obtaining the current objective, whatever that may be. When it comes to the abuse of children, perhaps the classic of all time occurred during the Iran/Iraq war when Iranian troops advancing towards the front found their way blocked by a large minefield. Not having mine clearing equipment and not wanting to lose his fighting men the Commander sent his troops into the local villages and rounded up all the children from the schools. These children, the young sons and daughters of their own people, were then forced to walk across the minefield in front of the troops and act as human mine destroyers. Several hundred young, innocent children died that day and many more were permanently maimed. This type of incredible inhumanity is not restricted to any one ethnic group.
I am still haunted by a television interview done during the Chechnya rebellion in Southern Russia. The subject of the interview was a young boy, small for his age, who was weighed down by all his equipment and who was celebrating his 13th birthday that day. When asked what he had down to celebrate his birthday he proudly announced that he had killed three Russian soldiers. That night a major offensive was launched by the Russian forces and I have always wondered whether that young boy survived or whether yet another young life was needlessly thrown away.
Consider also the incident in New York when a firefighter staggered out of a blazing tenement building carrying the limp form of a young boy in his arms only to be berated by the boy's father for not having saved his TV set instead. His reasoning? Kids are easy to get, TV's cost money.
Consider the thousands of homeless kids that wander the streets of every major city in the world. What did they do to deserve a life on the streets without shelter, without food, without caring, without love? In some cases the kids left home in order to make life easier for the other siblings because there was no food and no money to buy food. With fewer mouths there would be more food to go round. In some cases they left after major problems with their parents. In some cases they were thrown out of the house because they were too much trouble for the parent(s) to be bothered with. In other situations, reportedly as high as 25% of those who become streetkids in North America, an emerging gay teenager is thrown out by homophobic parents. Recent studies in the United States have shown that of all the children who find themselves living by their wits in the streets of our cities, 95% never get off the streets and more than half of them will be dead before they reach the age of 20. Consider the fact that there are over 100,000 homeless children in the USA alone, probably the richest country in the world, and countless millions in the rest of the world. Where is the love there?
Some say that we should all turn to God, for God is love, regardless of faith and beliefs, yet the fact is that in the past 1000 years, more innocent people have been killed in the name of God than from all other causes combined. Where is the love there? Even today, many of the conflicts in the world are based on religious beliefs. Even children's fables politely forget the 'unwritten' inhumanity in the background. The tales of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, robbing from the rich to give to the poor, are well known to every English speaking child yet it is never mentioned that Robin Hood's hero, King Richard, was absent from England because he was leading the forces in the Crusades. The Crusades were fought solely on religious grounds. Innocent people were being slaughtered in the name of God.
If all those who have enough would give even a small iota of what they have to those who have nothing, if all those parents who are preparing to throw their kid to the streets would just stop and think again, if every person would simply take the time to care about another, then perhaps we might not need to be like Oliver and wonder "Where is love?" - What a wonderful world it would be!
