Documentarian: "What is home to you?"
Kid: Home? I don't know that place.
Documentarian: If you had one wish, what would it be?
Kid: To redo my life.
Documentarian: Are you happy?
Kid: What? It's crowded around here.
Firstly, children have feelings. Clear feelings. Aware feelings. They see what is, they see what it means, they have a perspective. They react. They contemplate. They decide. They know.
Films like this keep my integrity, honesty, truth at bay. They keep me realizing and recognizing my privilege. How I get to live. I inhabit a nation, a country and a state where children are made to suffer their parents faults & flaws. It's deeper than unfair.
The children of this docu are from homeless families who live in the motel because they can't afford rent in Orange County. They have to be surrounded by the joys other children experience, that they don't. If they never will , I am unsure. I hope they do. They are surrounding Disneyland. One of the most magic places for kids, and they get none of it. They know hardship, pain, sorrow, being without, not having. It's more than sad.
One little boy is so angry. He talks to the documentarian, answers questions, but gets easily annoyed by her asking why, what do you think, what do you feel, etc. He's only 6. All he knows is what he hates. Another young lady, Cassidy, only 7, feels she has nothing to look forward to. Nothing to be excited about. Her, and other kids in these stories, have Project Hope School as an avenue away from the motel for a while. Even that has its loopholes.
Every time I feel I'm having a truly hard time, I am faced with children who have no choices. Who have to live as their parents live, who are barely making it themselves. They lose their childhood and have very grownup worries. Having any semblance of childhood is worth it. One thing every kid deserves is a childhood.
This is why I love what I do. Working closely, pointedly and pertinently with children from backgrounds in domestic abuse, poverty and homelessness. Children who live with challenges they find insurmountable and want to be free from. With us, they are for a while. They become children again. It's the very least I can do.
Yet I can do more. I am ignited and impassioned to learn what else there is and supply it. Provide it. Protect them. Hold and keep them. So they know, next to their loved ones, someone cares.
Please care.
♥
No comments:
Post a Comment