{"id":23963,"date":"2012-12-17T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=23963"},"modified":"2012-12-17T12:00:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-17T12:00:38","slug":"what-child-is-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/12\/what-child-is-this\/","title":{"rendered":"What Child Is This?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What child is this?\u00a0 Whose child is this?\u00a0 Is this child an Iraqi . . . an Israeli . . .\u00a0 a Chechnyan . . . an Afghani . . . a Kurd?\u00a0\u00a0 Is she or he English, Indonesian, Spanish, Lebanese, Turkish, Congolese, Bosnian, Iranian, Brazilian?\u00a0\u00a0 Does it matter?\u00a0 Is this child not a daughter or son to each of us?\u00a0 Is this child not a human being born of a union of a man and woman whose intimacy, whose passion, whose very breathe yielded a life that sought only to live . . . to enjoy some moments of laughter and delight, some moments of comfort and calm . . . to make yet another life?<\/p>\n

Now this child rests amidst the dust and debris of war . . . lifeless . . . torn and shattered\u2026 killed by someone whom she or he never knew and would probably never meet.\u00a0 Death from a distance. . . a bomb from a drone or plane, a shell from a mortar, a strap of explosives . . .\u00a0 intentional and willing, calculated and planned, a measured effort to destroy.\u00a0 The source:\u00a0 an agent of death and destruction, a pilot or soldier, an insurgent or terrorist . . . does it matter? They have killed their own child . . . they have killed our child.\u00a0 And in doing so, they have diminished each of us as human beings, each of us as creatures of consciousness and conscience, each of us as reflections and carriers of life.\u00a0 Words cannot console her or his parents — if they, indeed, survived this horror. They are left with only endless pain . . . memories of a child eating, sleeping, playing . . . a reminder of a tragic moment inscribed in mortar and blood.<\/p>\n

Enough!\u00a0 Enough!\u00a0 Stand, speak, write, act against those who advocate violence and hate no matter the source — be they presidents, kings, prime ministers, generals, terrorists, mullahs, rabbis, dictators, ministers, true believers . . .\u00a0 tell them that we do not share their quest for power and greed.\u00a0\u00a0 Tell them we do not share their hate, nor their blindness and indifference to suffering.\u00a0 Tell them we do not share their empty post-tragedy rhetoric designed to keep us mired in the fulfillment of their selfish needs, pacified and contented by their explanations and assurances.<\/p>\n

THIS IS OUR CHILD! <\/strong>\u00a0Today, we claim this child as our own, too late to keep her or him alive, too late to know her or his hopes and dreams, too late to know the promise and possibilities of their life had it been given the chance to be lived free of oppression, abuse, and indignity.\u00a0\u00a0 But, we are not too late to affirm to all living children that we will try to protect you, to guard you, and to shelter you from the terror of war and violence, and from an untimely, painful, and meaningless death, by choosing peace over war, voice over silence, and conscience over comfort.<\/p>\n

December is often called a \u201cHoly Month\u201d because of the many special holidays celebrated by different religions and cultural groups, including December 5 \u2013 Ashura<\/em> (Islamic), 8 Bodhi <\/em>(Buddhism), 8-16: Hannukah <\/em>(Jewish), 25 \u2013 Christmas<\/em> (Christian), and 26 Kwanzaa<\/em> (African American).\u00a0 Yet, amidst the professed commitment to peace by these groups, the world is filled with violence, destruction, and war. This is unacceptable.\u00a0 It is intolerable.\u00a0 Let every religion and cultural group choose peace over war — without hesitancy, doubt, or excuse, and let them announce their choice on their special December day. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0________________________<\/p>\n

Anthony Marsella, Ph.D., a\u00a0 member of the TRANSCEND Network, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces. He can be reached at marsella@hawaii.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What child is this? Whose child is this? Now this child rests amidst the dust and debris of war . . . lifeless . . . torn and shattered\u2026 killed by someone whom she or he never knew and would probably never meet. Death from a distance. . . a bomb from a drone or plane, a shell from a mortar, a strap of explosives . . . intentional and willing, calculated and planned, a measured effort to destroy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}