Letters to Society

To Slay a Dragon

     Dear Society,

                     As a child, the innocence you are born with is what one might call the entirety of your childhood. When one says, I miss my childhood or where did my childhood go. One is really reminiscing on the innocence lost as they come to realize, they are not in fact born into a world where justice reigns without corruption. No, there is a dragon. His name is corruption and he lives and breaths in every single one of us. As one grows to acknowledge the dragon they lose their shield of innocence and enter adulthood. 

                     This is the introduction to one of the five books I am currently writing, a crime novel that explores the unspoken pledge, the contract if you will, that everyone signs when they grow up. The contract states that they understand that there is darkness in the world and there is nothing they can do about it. I.E. starving children deprived of education or evil warlords that do unspeakable acts in third world countries. 

                    If a child were to overhear two adults conversing on such matters, the questions are imminent; well, what's being done? Where is the knight, to slay the dragon and save the damsels in distress?..... well the adult's answer is most probably the usual, you'll understand when you're older, when they too sign the contract they mean. 

                 This to me is contradictory to everything we've ever taught our children. We give them fantastical stories of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, all with happy endings, and yet we expect them to understand these endings can't be applied to reality. We tell them to dream and yet also expect them to understand that some dreams just don't come true. 

                I believe that every child has the potential to be a blossoming flower each with its own unique petal and design, but we have to be given the thorns to fight back against the dragon. We have to be taught, every generation has to be taught that they can dream and wish upon every star but until they unsheathe their sword, the dragon will always reign.

               So instead of having classes in our schools that ask our children to interpret in detail why the author chose the color of the curtain to be blue; what are the major problems of the world and what can we do to solve them? Teach them manipulative behavior and what they can do to protect our friends and family from it.

                I've participated in Youth Court for over four years, I've judged, prosecuted, and defended over sixty cases. So, I know it's not easy, I know change doesn't happen overnight with a flick of a wand. But, I've also seen that it's possible. Possible. That makes it worth it for me. If it's not hard, it's not worth fighting for.

               So stop teaching us life isn't fair, and make it fair. But most of all, let us never again be forced to sign that contract, to keep our shield of innocence and we can finally slay the dragon of corruption.

                         Sincerely, 

                                 The Dreamer