We have forsaken our children. We have abandoned their health, their education, their well-being, and their right to freedom and safety and joy. We have failed to protect them from child sexual abuse, trafficking, technology, and violence. School shootings. School shootings. We have allowed this incredible violence to enter and takeover children's safe spaces and be commonplace. School shootings are now expected, anticipated. This cannot be. We have abandoned our children to internet chat rooms and virtual places where evil groups of people such as 764 and 09A take advantage of their innocence and their loneliness and their struggles. These groups exploit children, cause them immense suffering, and kill them. We have failed to make the world a place where children are not faced with the overwhelming existential issues and noise and confusion and hopelessness that they currently face, daily. Many children go hungry and without care and without consideration and without love. All of this is our fault. It cannot continue. Change begins with awareness. Children are stoic in suffering. They are strong. Oftentimes, they are silent while they bear unfathomable burdens. Adults and caretakers must wake up. It is not the children's responsibility to communicate their suffering and point out the problems, although they are certainly trying. We are not listening. We are not paying attention. We are not doing enough. To anyone who thinks the world is a good and decent place: you are only doing a disservice to children and you are only perpetuating these evils that afflict them. We must wake up. The change starts there, and it starts with every single person who interacts with a child. "It takes a village." Truly, it does. And our communities are not doing their due diligence and responsibility to make sure that our children are safe. Come on, people. Wake up.