The loss of innocence

Last week a pretty 16 year old girl was brutally murdered and her body burned by her murderers. It turns out that her murderer is a young man who is known to her. This is not the first case of young children being assaulted, raped or murdered. Who could forget Nurin Jazlin? Unfortunately, I doubt it will be the last.

What is becoming of our world, of humanity? How is it that young people are so reckless in their lives that they now think nothing of killing another?

It is so hard to read about young promising lives brutally cut short. How do we even comfort parents who lose their children this way?

The truth is, we are no longer safe no matter where we are. We have iron grilles in our house, but it does not stop the robbers from coming in. We tell our kids not to speak to strangers, but it is people known to them who do unspeakable things to them. As parents, we fear for our children more than ourselves. But what do we do? What can we do? Who should our children trust? How do we tell them that behind the mask of someone close to them, is a monster lurking within? We want so much to let our children be kids, but the reality is, childhood is no longer a time without worries.

I think back to the time when I was a child and knew that my parents never had to worry about my whereabouts. I had the freedom to live my childhood as only a child should. We could go out and play with our friends, coming home only for meals before dashing off to play again. These days, our children have no such luxury. They are under our watchful eyes at all times because we fear for their safety. In the process, they have lost so much more than their independence. They have lost their childhood, the most precious time of their lives.