One Lesson ALL Adults Must Teach ALL Children

If I had $5 for each time I saw a teenager posing with a gun on social media, I wouldn’t need any of my four jobs.

Some of the best dressed students I’ve ever taught; with the perfect teeth; the most frequent haircuts and the best of the best shoes and fits – they were all missing one thing: basic regard for human life.

This summer has proven similar to many summers before. It’s hot, both literally and figuratively. Young people are hanging out in the streets, while others are trying to stay out of the way at home. Both groups are falling victim to gun violence.

At about 7:45 a.m., I rolled over to my phone and did as I do most mornings. I checked my messages and then headed to Facebook. Before I could catch up on free agency news from the NBA, my timeline alerted me that two 17-year-old young men here in Dallas didn’t make it to see this Monday morning.

Of course other people rolled over at the same time, saw the same news and reduced the issue to a simple “stop hanging out in the streets.” These thoughts were quickly circumvented by the social media masses posting: “keep your babies at home.”

I’m here to tell you that neither of those sentiments is the solution.

In the same month that took the lives of teenagers gunned down in the street, teenagers playing video games in their respective homes were also shot. Our issue is no longer being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our problem is that so many people have a total disregard for human life.

Firing a gun into the air, not knowing where the bullets will land is a total disregard for human life. Firing a gun into a car is a total disregard for human life. Firing a gun at someone who looks at you funny is a total disregard for human life. Seeing your teen pose with a gun in a profile photo and ignoring it because he says it wasn’t loaded is a total disregard for human life. Ignoring gestures and verbal threats of gun violence; chalking it up to adolescent play is a total disregard for human life. 

No, not every teenager who poses with a gun is going to kill the next teen he feuds with, but are we as adults addressing the root of the narrative? Teenagers crave experience. Subconsciously, experience gives then a sense of worth. If they talk about things for so long, mimic ideals and falsities for so long – why wouldn’t they inch themselves closer to the actual experience?

Right now the Dallas Police Department is scrambling for solutions to combat the increasing number of murders in a once more peaceful city. DPD, however, will never write a handbook that will rid the city of premeditated murder. That is an impossible feat.

As parents, educators, churches and community members – we must adamantly instill in our young people a true value for life. When children don’t know who they are, why they’re here, the relevant culture of where they’re from and the future that awaits them – they see no value in themselves. They then devalue others, in many cases taking innocent lives.

This mindset doesn’t end once the teenager becomes the adult. The attempts at violence just become more vile and calculated.

If you have children, if you care for children, if you’re in contact with children – teach them to value life. As the adult, it is your responsibility to show the young people you create that life is worth living. It doesn’t take money or great power to do this.

If you value your life, your surroundings and most of all the human beings living around you – the young people watching you will follow suit.