In indignation I cringe inside whenever I read stories about young children being deprived of their lives so soon. Most recently there was the case in North Carolina of a 5 year old being shot in front of his siblings when he was riding a bike. There was another case of a boy playing his toys and getting shot by police who thought he had a gun. Alas, I can go on and list all of the numerous school shootings which have burdened the hearts of many and led to the March for Our Lives.

In addition, there have been many reports of seemingly healthy young people getting random heart attacks and strokes because nobody ever did a comprehensive heart check due to their youth.

Likewise on the other angle, our society neglects the elderly (which is material for another article) In this one though, I will focus on the youth as it is world youth day.

The amount of tragedies befalling the young are too many. Many times we say "its terrible, but there is nothing we can do."

I wish to challenge that- let's find something we can do about this. Whether it is more comprehensive background checks or more education in appreciating children, the list can go on and on. Your defense of life should go beyond just the workers who are contributing to the economy but also extend to the elderly and yes to the children. Youth have so much potential, and so many years ahead of them- if they are not so cruelly deprived of them. What kind of world would we be if youth have to fear for their lives just going for a walk? if a child wants to play with his toys in his own yard and has to worry about being shot- this is not a safe world we live in.

This issue we do not draw much attention to- but we should. While it is cliche indeed to say that "children are our future" this statement is true. In order to build a better future we must value the lives of our youth, and ensure that they have the best childhood to grow up in. Foster their love of learning, and growth from a safe environment.

This does not mean everybody should be a teacher and go volunteer in the church nursery- but what this does mean is we need to recognize children as human. We need to praise their accomplishments, and show as much indignation when children are senselessly murdered or abused as we do for adults.

Not only do we have to foster a culture of appreciating life in our society, we need to come together and instead of saying "oh its sad but that is the way things are" we have to brainstorm new policies and new steps of action we can take to create a better world not only for ourselves but also for posterity for hundreds of years to come.

Thank you so much for reading, and may we create a better world.