One Wish
Do you remember as a kid the fountains that you threw change into and were suppose to make a wish?
Maybe you were one of those kids that took all the change your parents had on them because the more change you threw in you thought the better chances of your wish coming true.
It is interesting as an adult how those wishes change. What you would wish for as a kid is so different then what you would wish for as an adult. As a kid I threw change into the wishing fountain in our mall and my wish did come true. I wished for a dog.
Now say you were told that you did have the opportunity for that one wish to come true that would only cost one penny, nickle, dime, or quarter.
What would be your one wish?
Your house to be paid off
A new car
A college degree
Dinner with your favorite celebrity
A dream vacation
Win the lottery
A new house
Your child to be cancer free
Your mother not to have alzheimers
One more day with a loved one that has died
If you could make one wish come true what would it be? I could think of many things I could wish for. One more day being innocent when I trusted everyone at 5 years old with the large extended family I once adored, my medical problems due to a controlled seizure condition gone, having all my student loans paid off, my own apartment in Manhattan, New York, a man I could trust, one more day with my great-grandma overlooking the lake she lived on in Michigan. I could think of a thousand things but there is one thing that tops them all I would use that one wish on.
The ability to have a half hour of every single parent, educator, and lawmakers time in America. I would have the attention of millions and the entire conversation would surround how we as America known as the greatest nation are failing children terribly from protecting them from the evil in this world. I would start off by explaining what happened in my childhood and what I can never get back and then point out how millions of children fall through the cracks because we ignore this silent epidemic and are not doing enough and what needs to be done ending on how education in schools with “Erin’s law” would be getting the message every year through elementary school to kids because we cannot rely on parents to talk to their kids about this. Often they are the ones abusing their kids. I want to pop the bubble society lives in thinking “this won’t happen to my child or students in my classroom.” Children of all races and economic backgrounds are abused. Black & White/Rich & Poor. It is happening everyday and America continues to ignore it until it is too late.
A few years back NBC, ABC, and CBS often known as competitors all joined forces and did a broadcast all together on their networks on Standing Up to Cancer. When will we see America step out of the shadows of silence and darkness and Stand Up to Child Abuse and not just leave it up to the child abuse advocates. There is so much research going on for saving lives from cancer, autism, alzheimers, aids, diabetes, and fighting wars in other countries. America just pulled its final troops out of the war in Iraq this week. Is America going to finally look at its own country and see the war going on with our most innocent people THE CHILDREN and start fighting the war going on in our own communities, streets, and backyards.
That day will come and I will be here to see it because I will be apart of making it happen but I cannot do it alone. Someday my wish will come true and the silence around the topic of child sexual abuse will no longer exist. While it would be easy just to keep wishing by throwing spare change into a wishing well that won’t bring the change I am looking for. If only it were that easy.
This type of wish calls for action. With the direction, dedication, and mission I am headed on in life this wish will be accomplished someday. Just give me time and wait and see! 🙂
