My prayer

Lord I pray for a solution

When the problem isn’t clear

I ask then for answers, guidance, and direction

I seek now peace and calm

For my troubled soul is weary

I know in my heart that you will be my guide

Direct my hands and lead me O’ Lord I pray

Philessa Hooks Jenkins

Every life has value

Every life has value

By Philessa Hooks Jenkins

Aka Lady PJ

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

     I was remembering the day my daughter was born and how very fragile I thought she was.  I remember it vividly because that was the day I gave birth to a little human being that I was fully responsible for and it was my job to protect.  A few days ago I was watching the news and a mother put her seven pound newborn baby, a girl, into a white plastic bag and left her precious little girl out in the woods next to her house (http://fox10tv.com/2014/03/01/mom-arrested-in-death-of-newborn-baby).   It’s very hard to think of a mother doing this to her child.  That child didn’t have a name, will never have a future, and she will only be remembered for her past.  It’s crazy to imagine but to her mother she didn’t have value.

     Today on the news a seven year old boy was shot in the head and rushed to the hospital.  That child had a name, “J’Duan,” a family that loved him, a past, but he will never have a future (http://www.wkrg.com/story/24893132/7-year-old-shot-in-mobile).  His mother will wake up tomorrow thinking of his voice, his laughter, his smell, his clothes, his toys, and his seat at the table, that empty seat.  I cannot imagine this pain but we live as though nothing has changed because for us life goes on.  Right now the State of Alabama is trying to push a bill that will allow more guns on the streets; possibly resulting in more lives lost.

     We hear about these events on the news yet we remain unfazed by them or so removed from them that we no longer care.  A child was murdered by her mother and a child was shot in the head, possibly self-inflicted, and we stand unfazed because it happens so much.  We hear these stories now and the sock factor doesn’t really reach us; something is really wrong with this!  Have we devalued life so much that it’s so easy to discard it like trash, are we so far gone that we can’t cry out for justice when we believe that something is unjust? 

     Putting more guns on the streets won’t cure what’s ailing this Country; changing people’s attitude about life will.  Every life has value and no one man is more important than the other.  We have to teach this to our children so they can in turn teach it to their children.  If we make small changes now it will make a big difference latter on in life; every life has value.