I was privileged to grow up in a very sheltered environment.  In many ways, my life was idyllic.  When I was nine, that sense of peace was being eroded.  I didn’t understand all the dynamics, but here’s what I knew and observed:

The union at Westinghouse was on strike; violence was a part of the union’s tactics; my dad was part of the management’s bargaining unit.  I heard a story on the news about a shotgun being fired through the bedroom window; it was the home of a co-worker of my dad… they said a baby’s crib was just inside that window … and shattered glass covered the baby’s mattress.  I knew that the only way my dad could get in and out of the factory safely was to hide in a railroad box car, as the locomotive entered and left with supplies and transformers.  I knew that my dad took his 12-gauge shotgun out of the back of his closet and had it leaning right inside the front door of our house.  I knew I felt scared!    I didn’t exactly know why I felt that way … I just did!

I remember my mother coming into my bedroom once, and found me sitting at my little desk crying.  She asked me why I was crying, and I told her I was scared.  She asked me what I was afraid of … and I couldn’t give her an answer … I just knew that something was different and I was scared!

Several years later, in recalling the incident, my mother acknowledged that a Pinkerton guard had been hired to follow my school bus from the time I left home until I returned.   I didn’t know that at the time … I just knew I felt scared! Fortunately, the strike ended and no one in our family got hurt.  Life returned to normal.  The shotgun was unloaded and returned to the back of my parent’s bedroom closet.  Life was good again.

The point I want to make is that – at least for this 9-year-old boy – the presence of a firearm by the front door didn’t make me feel safer.  It made me feel afraid!

I remember in the late-1970’s, traveling to Europe.  We were flying a Belgian airline, and as I looked out the plane’s window while we were still on the ground, I saw an El Al Israeli plane, also boarding, and there were Israeli soldiers surrounding the plane, each carrying military assault rifles. Even as an adult, that didn’t make me feel safer … it was a reminder of the violence and bitterness between the Israeli’s and the Palestinians.

In our culture and the climate today, where gun violence hits our schools with frightening frequency, my plea is for us to stop arguing “guns” and start listening to the children.  Children have an Inner Magnificence that has yet to be tainted by adult fears and insecurities.

The Master Teacher said, “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”  I think this is some of what he meant … seeing the world from a child’s perspective.

So, here’s my invitation for today … whether you are a parent, a grandparent, a teacher, an administrator, a lobbyist, a law-maker … or an ordinary citizen … get in touch with your Inner Magnificence, and be open to listening to the children … allow them to make you wise!

The extent to which you do is the extent to which you will say, “I feel good about being me!” … and that’s a promise!