It seemed surreal, watching the news last night. Crouching under their cars, running to assist each other. Still protecting the crowd as they were being shot. Our superheroes were being hunted. I wondered if Tamir Rice was crying in heaven. He must be saying " No, I was killed by one bad guy,. These are not the bad guys.They are still my superheroes.They are the good guys"
Tamir Rice,that child, that name, that moment. He was 12 years old. Playing outside on a cold winter's day with his toy gun. Like million of children before him and like millions after him; he felt joy lost in the land of make- believe.
I have been that mom who has sent her tomboy out to play with her toy gun. In our suburb it was common to see young children toy guns in hand, camouflage on their bodies,playing 'ambush the aliens'. I use to drive into my garage very carefully because I was never sure when some smiling child would pop out, fake automatic rifle in hand, ready to detain me. Often I would be captured while unloading the groceries of my minivan. I would put my hands up and laugh. I would be met by a child's toothy grin. Sometimes I had to search to identify the face under the the bandana and war paint. Kids having fun. I allow no political correctness in the land of Wink and Nod.
Tamir, who perhaps did not have a suburb to play in, ran to a neighborhood park. But that is ok,we have all either played or watched our children or are neighbor's children playing with everything from water guns to realistic looking prize weapons. As adults we know that this has ALWAYS been acceptable in this country. As a child, this little boy thought the same thing. So what happened on that day when one little boy played by the rules we all play by? What he did not realize was that he was going to meet a big bad monster. A man who had already been informed that he should not ever chose a career in which he had to make decisions with a gun. A monster who knew that by ignoring this assessment by professionals in his own field, that he would be putting little boys and girls everywhere at risk. This monster ignored this advice and did exactly what was predicted that he was capable of doing. He drove up, stepped out of his car, and looked at this child and murdered him. This little boy died with no one to hold him,comfort him, or cry with him. We failed him, we could not keep the creatures that live in the dark away.
The sad part of this tale was that the monster lived in cave of the superheroes. The good guys who protect little boys from monsters. The men and women in blue who put their lives on the line everyday for little boys, just so they can feel free to run wild and play all kinds of games.The superheroes come with candy at Halloween, Help children when they are lost. Comfort them when they are hurt and protect the parents of the children, so they can simply be children So when children see the superheroes they feel safe and secure.They know they can run to them, not away from them. This is the way it has been, this is the way it should be. Until a monster slips in and destroys everything that children believe in. Destroys everything that the parents believe in.
Then we had last night where the superheroes were being superheroes. They were out with the crowd , taking pictures, protecting them. That's what they do they protect the villages and the villages have always loved them for this. But suddenly out of the village, came a monster and started killing them. Murdering them in cold blood, as they stood unprotected while protecting. Once again leaving the children to wonder what has happened to all the adults. For we have come to a time when they really can't be safe,because the monsters have infiltrated every level of their world. We have to stop our monsters wherever we find them; in the midst of the superheroes,within our communities, in the branches of our own family tree. Maybe, just maybe, there will come a time when this story is not a true one, but simply a very dark fairy tale. Perhaps we can get to a time when the children know that when the book is closed, the adults are always there to make sure dark fairytales don't ever come true.
