Disappeared Children

                                                                            

                                                                           Disappeared Children

     At a workshop in which chairs were arranged in a circle with one chair standing alone in the middle, participants settled into the ring of chairs leaving the center chair empty. The moderators asked why no one had sat in the empty chair. Answers ranged from “We thought it was for the speaker,” to “We didn’t want to sit alone.” 

The moderators explained that the center chair represented the “disappeared child,” — children who are forgotten, rejected, neglected, abused or without hope. These children live in trauma. They are lonely, isolated, and uncared for by society. They are unseen by those living in community — represented by the circle of occupied chairs. 

America has a history of disappearing people we find inconvenient. When the Constitution was being written representation in Congress was debated. The southern states, slave-holding states, wanted more representation in the national government, so even though they held slaves to be less-than-human, they wanted them to be counted. A compromise was made. Representation was calculated by including three-fifths of the slaves. Two-fifths simply disappeared as people.

After the Civil War, freed slaves were persecuted in the Reconstruction south. After a Constitutional amendment guaranteed the right to vote to all, local governments created obstacles that effectively denied citizenship to African-Americans. Thousands were lynched without trial. Thousands more were unjustly incarcerated. Lynched or imprisoned, they disappeared from society.

Today, thousands of children living in poverty are disappearing due to lack of resources, lack of access to equal education, lack of opportunity, and lack of compassion. All children need adequate nutrition and housing, fair funding for education, access to affordable healthcare, caring teachers and community workers, equal access to opportunities for growth and success, consistency of care, and equal treatment under the law. These rights extend to all children — those who live in your neighborhood, those who live in the inner city, those who speak different languages, and those whose parents cannot care for them due to the inequalities which exist in our society. 

A story is told of a king welcoming a group of people into his palace. Why they have been favored? The king answers, “I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me.” Never having met the king, they ask how this could be. The king answers: “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.”

Are we overlooking or ignoring children in need, children who are suffering, children who are invisible to society because of situations they cannot control? Are we allowing children to disappear? Open your eyes to find these children. Shine a light on them. Advocate for programs that provide equal access to nutrition, security, and education. Encourage your representatives to support equal opportunity legislation. Work for and donate to programs that support children and those in need. Don’t allow a single child to disappear. Pull their chairs into the circle. Welcome them with open arms.