We have a lot to learn from children. I spoke about it indirectly in my Editorial yesterday (20) – “I heard music through the voices of anger and eyes full of tears”.

The one thing they have we adults don’t is innocence and unfortunately that attribute is soon lost.

Is it lost forever? Unfortunately I have to say ‘yes’. Once gone it can never come back but it should never be forgotten.

We actually teach our children to lose it by the way we act, the way we speak and the way we write.

Every single one of us has prejudices. Even when we are trying to be good. We become blind because we have preconceived ideas. We are a jury that does not consider all the facts with a clear mind and we are innocent because as Jesus said on the Cross, we can be forgiven as we do not know what we do.

Is that really an excuse?

We only have to look at our beautiful innocent children and learn from them. They know how to get on with each other. They know how to play together. To talk together. Yes, they squabble. They argue. They might even fight. But watch like I do. Within minutes of the tiff, of the tears, they are playing together as if old friends.

Of course we as adults know what is best for our children.

We live in a world where children are often neglected. Children are often abused. We must not sit back and do nothing when we see it happen before our eyes.

In yesterday’s iNews Cayman we published a story about a 9 year old girl in South Carolina, USA who for most of the summer holiday had joined her mother where she worked at McDonalds to play on her mother’s laptop computer. The laptop got stolen. Nothing in the story then nor later is there any report the child was abused. In fact the reverse is true.

When the child saw all the children playing in the nearby park the child wanted to join them. The mother agreed and dropped the child off leaving her with her cell phone to call in case of emergency.

Yes it was wrong. It was a mistake but did it warrant a police action and welfare authorities taking the child away from her mother and locking the mother up in prison?

Can you imagine what that poor child is suffering mentally?

Can you imagine what that mother is going through mentally?

The actions by the adults in this case cannot be justified.

The second story that follows the first story on the same subject makes a claim that the reason the authorities have acted so heavy handed is because the mother is black.

Prejudice because of colour.

The first story makes no mention of the colour, race, religion, etc. of the child or mother.

Both stories, though, agree the punishment did not fit the crime.

The one person that has suffered most is the child.

She is the innocent victim. What has she learnt from all this? I suspect it is a form of hatred against the very people who think they are protecting her. The authorities. They took away her mother, who in her eyes and in mine, too, was doing her very best to look after her.

“I want my mummy,” she innocently cries every night.

An innocence soon to be lost forever.

If you haven’t read the two stories they can be found together under the heading “Should letting your 9 year-old play unsupervised land you in prison?” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/should-letting-your-9-year-old-play-unsupervised-land-you-in-prison/