Torn

[Loretta Riddell (Elohi)]

My Country is being torn apart

An honesty has always been important to me

Seeing children all children having equal chances to succeed in life

Which is no longer happening

Back in my day I was both a cowboy and a indian in games we played

I have also been the good guy and bad guy when playing Cops and Robbers

As a child I was encouraged to have a dream

Encouraged   if I desired to do  so anything the boys did

Sometime I did great and somethimes I  was a total  flop

But that was  life in my world back them

As a Adult  I   see so many  wrongs inflicted upon our Young

Racial divide. words that cannot be written, spoken

Pop tarts deemed a weapon

Shirts  respresenting this Great Country  banned from schools

Words like Bless You bring  punishment to our Children

And now a Navaho Child   removed and denied access to his class

All because his neatly combed, and long hair braided was sent home

No prayers allowed, yet many Moslems  children are given that right

No blessings of any kind allowed because it might insult just 1

I am really torn as I watch our schools become segragated

by, color, race or religions or non religious

I am so torn over what is happening

Our Children no  longer Children

There is no  game playing

Their words are censored many  times

What they eat dictated by Government

Our chosen way of Raising them attacked

Our moral values and our Faiths denied in schools today

The children with  all the haves in life  taught to

Ridicule those who  do not have every advantage in life..

My anger again boiled to the surface as I read about the school

In Tuson  sending a Navaho Child home because of his hair

Hair does not  educate a Child,  clothes do not educate a Child

Their beliefs and traditions  have no influence either way  in the ability

To learn to read, write, add or subtract, or the history  of this Great Country

So torn because I no longer have Children in  any school

But  my Childrens  children and my great  grand children

Are dealing  wiith  all of this

My Family and I  work so hard to teach  the past

Show them  they have the right to be innocent children  divided by nobody

Because they are who  they are

To Honor their Parents

Instead of living  what Government demands of them..

Instilling the confidence in them so they stand  up for their friends  who are

being treated unjustly...

We all see our world in chaos and our children becoming  targets everyday

It is no wonder we have children killing children,

finding it easier to steal what they want rather than work for it..

Torn by what is happening  today

Praying I can make each child who crosses my  path

Know they are Special and no one has the right to make them feel 

something is wrong with them. their  family or their traditions..

Written By
©Loretta Riddell