Editor:

This week I heard yet another report of a young boy committing suicide by hanging himself in the nurse’s office using his own belt, reportedly the victim of school bullying and ridicule. This happened in America, the land of plenty and endless opportunity.
Contrast that with the discovery of a small boy of similar age in Haiti who had been buried alive under rubble caused by the earthquake. A photo journalist captured the splendid photo of his rescue. When the light of life reached his eyes as he was pulled from the hole of darkness, his love of life spread over his face in the form of a huge smile and his eyes and arms shot up toward the sky in elation and the joy of life.
How is it that this child, born and raised in a land of poverty and whose will to live had endured a horror that none of us can comprehend, being buried alive, find such a joy for life, whereas our little American counterpart, had such a death wish?
We seem to have a systemic problem in America. So many of our young are so emotionally scarred that, before the age of 10, they are either taking their own lives or killing others. This was unheard of a few years ago.
What is happening in America? What can we do to identify these troubled children and give them the love, guidance and support that will enable them to find hope, rather than unbearable despair? What can we do to teach our children tolerance and that taunting and ridiculing and bullying others is not to be tolerated? What can we do as a community to help children find their self worth, to identify and build upon their talents and to engage them in fruitful and fun learning experiences? Showering them with ‘things’ or handing them a DVD player or some other technical device to babysit them and keep them idle and quiet and isolated while these problems fester in the darkness of their troubled despair is obviously not the answer.
What can I do to make a difference? What can you do to make a difference? How can we preserve, conserve and develop our greatest resource – our children?

Jo Anne Tuck
Bastrop