Every child’s birthright
“It is every child’s birthright.” Those are the words that came to me as I listened to the mother from Memphis.
Operating under the governor’s command, National Guard troops were deployed to the city earlier this month. Memphis, home of Elvis Presley, earned the distinction of having the highest rate of violent crime per capita in 2024. The city of rock and roll became the city of murder, aggravated assault, robbery, and a laundry list of property crimes. As a White House memorandum put it, “The city of Memphis, Tennessee, is suffering from tremendous levels of violent crime that have overwhelmed its local government’s ability to respond effectively.” Hence, the intervention of the National Guard.
Embattled residents responded, one of them the aforementioned mother. “I’ve been in my home for five years, and for the first time in five years, my kids have been able to play in the backyard and be able to do it comfortably. I haven’t heard a gunshot in two weeks. I haven’t seen any strange people walk up and down the street…I’m sittin’ on my porch right now, and I’m watchin’ kids outside playin’. People outside, walkin’ with their kids, stuff I ain’t never seen before in my neighborhood, all because we feel safe in this environment. I hate to have to be this way, but I’m happy. Honestly, I truly feel that this is a Band-Aid to the problem. I don’t think it’s truly going to fix everything, but to have a moment of peace, just—thank you, Jesus.”
For feeling safe, for the absence of strangers on the street. For the stillness in the air with no gunfire to alarm. For the beautiful privilege of sitting on her front porch in broad daylight, watching her children play, the Memphis mother was grateful.
I’ll admit it. This country girl was stunned. After all, it was a child’s birthright, wasn’t it, to play beneath God’s spreading sky in innocence and safety? To breathe fresh air in perfect peace, unafraid of being struck down by a stray bullet? To bike and run and play games with neighbor kids without the intrusion of menacing strangers? All of that and far more, I thought, is what every child deserves and should have.
My siblings and I spent hours outdoors, playing with cousins on our grandparents’ farm. My own sons grew up outdoors, gardening, swinging, running, shooting hoops, and scaling the maple tree, dropping down onto the trampoline. They worked outside. They played outside, and in the summer, they’d set up a tent, turning the entire backyard into their own KOA campground, luxuriating in lazy summer days. It was their birthright, and it was so very good.
Whether on a city lot or on many acres in the country, children need to be able to work and play freely. But that’s not all they need. For the proper care and keeping of kids, it takes a solid family unit. Children deserve to have a stable home with adults who are, themselves, stable. Ideally, that will take a mother and a father, but life here is never perfect. A mother or a father can most certainly raise healthy, well-adjusted children who become healthy, well-adjusted adults. So can grandparents when the circumstances call for it, and many are stepping up. When there’s love at home, and order, a child can learn to thrive, even in difficult conditions.
Children deserve to have parents(s) who are people of character, who model the virtues on which a civilized society is built. Those include, but are not limited to, integrity, responsibility, hard work, kindness, compassion, honesty, and generosity. When parents fail here, it is a great disservice to the children who will be left to find these things on their own if they ever find them at all.
Children deserve to have boundaries and discipline, especially in the early years, for boundaries and discipline rightly applied will teach them to establish their own internal controls as they grow. Adults who are self-controlled will not likely need the external controls imposed by the laws of any government, for they are governed by a higher law. Such help and training are also birthrights of all children.
It can be disheartening to look at the condition of our culture today. There are so many dysfunctional homes, so much crime in our cities. In many places, there is a blatant disregard, even hatred, for the rule of law. When laws are not enforced, there will be disorder. Ergo, we can have law and order, or we can have lawlessness and disorder. Under the latter, society will eventually collapse.
The ills that riddle our nation are reflective of our inner condition. Laws alone are powerless to change hearts and minds. The kind of reform, or change, that will save our country must come from within. When we think and believe rightly, we will live and act rightly. A nation that is full of citizens who rely on Wisdom and Truth to inform their decisions is a nation that will be strong and unshakeable. One heart, one mind, one person at a time, change can come.
Meanwhile, as we pray and long for such national change, there is something that of us can do. Right here, in the circles in which we’ve been placed, we can model the virtues outlined above for the children we know. We can treat them with boundless respect, compassion, and dignity as is their birthright. Maybe, just maybe, our love can effect lasting change. For after all, everyone you meet is someone else’s child.