HOW CAN WE PROTECT OUR CHILDREN

The country is bracing up under the threat of new terrorist attacks.
Authorities are being especially vigilant over our country's landmarks, in
particular those in New York. I believe it's safe to say we are all
concerned about the threats.

But I am worried about another form of terrorism. This terrorism is subtler
and really hard to identify, even though its effects are visible all around
us. It doesn't involve any foreign forces or groups.

It's being committed everyday, by some people we might least suspect and
the victims are people we might least expect to be targets of crimes. I am
talking about the recent rash of incidents that have ended in the death of
a young person. Unfortunately, there have been too many lately to even
begin to list here.

The most recently reported murder was of a young teen-ager at the hands of
a man she met in a chat room over the Internet in Connecticut. Many things
bother me about this case. First, the age of the girl. This young woman was
only 13, but authorities say she had apparently met her killer for sex at
least once before the fatal encounter. The news media quoted the girl's
father as saying that he had no idea his daughter was sexually active. She
was, according to other reports, " a cheerleader, a good student and an
altar girl" - all signs that might be interpreted to mean that such a
person would not be sexually active or capable of deceit. Her most fatal
attribute, however, might have been simple trust of a stranger.

There is no doubt that kids these days are computer-savvy and this only
seems to add to their ability to fool their parents about their activities,
which, for teenagers is not really an abnormal thing to do. Teenagers have,
probably since there have been teenagers, I believe, showed some form of
rebellion of parental control.

I have also been following the case of Precious Doe, the dead and still
unidentified child found in the woods in Kansas City, who at first police
thought was another missing child from Florida. The fate or whereabouts of
that child, now missing for more than a year, remain unknown. So, this case
really involves two children - one whose body remains unclaimed and another
who is still missing.

In a nearby city, a couple of weeks ago, a 13-year-old was murdered, the
unintended victim of a drive-by shooting. The alleged perpetrator in this
case is a fifteen-year-old. The father of the slain youth said he felt
"sorry" for his son's murderer; that he wasn't angry, just hurt. The
alleged shooter was described by friends and neighbors as an athlete, "very
quiet" and "respectable." Not words you'd expect to hear describe a
supposed drive-by shooter.

However, I admire the father's sentiments, given the circumstances. Losing
a child that way has to be devastating.

When a young life is needlessly lost, there is more than one life gone,
more than one life affected. If the 15-year-old is convicted of the crime,
his life as a free individual is basically over.

All around us, children are suffering. They are the victims of horrible and
violent crimes, all too often, they are also the perpetrators. Neither the
victims nor the perpetrators are the winners, both are losers. Their
families and friends are also losers. Neither name-calling nor jubilation
is appropriate for either. No action can undo the harm.

The looming question is how can we protect our children - from the
Internet, from drugs, from sexual predators, from themselves?