A Candle for Christin by: Jon Crane

Saturday Ramblins, Vol. 1, Extra (August 8E, 1998)

(Publisher's Note: Angel Friends and Saturday Ramblins was never intended to be a political or social forum. Our intent is to provide inspiration and help to readers as they face the difficulties that life throws at us each day. However, there are times when this writer cannot sit still or keep quiet. And the needless death of another child is one of them. The following is the opinion of this writer and this writer alone. JC)

A child dead in Wyoming: eight-year-old Christin Lamb. Police have a suspect in custody. Christin was believed to be taken while tending her grandfather's garden, having ridden to his house on her little red scooter. Her body and scooter were left in a landfill like so much refuse.

Am I angry? Yes. Because what do we do with our children now? It wasn't that long ago when you sent your child out-of-doors it seemed that the worst news to come back was they skinned a knee falling off their bike. Most of it was fixable with a Band-Aid™, a kiss and a loving hand to wipe the tears away.

We sent them off to school and when they didn't return at their usual time it was because they'd spoken out-of-turn in class and were kept in detention for an hour. It was not because a classmate shot them on the playground or in the cafeteria.

What do we do with out children now? Keep them in-doors? Stay with them every moment they are away from home--at play, in school, wherever? Pass tougher laws on gun control, harsher penalties for child predators? Will any of this bring young Christin Lamb back? Or the children slain over the last year while doing nothing more out of the ordinary than attending school?

I don't know. I don't have an answer. I'm as frightened as the rest of you for my children and grandchildren, for Lana's children, for your children. We live in an age when the life of a child is not as valued as it should be. A nanny smothers an infant and receives "time served" as a penalty. A young woman has a baby in a bathroom, throws it in a toilet, returns to the prom and serves less time in prison than the man who steals my car.

Overworked and understaffed child protection agencies allow children to go on living in homes were there is demonstrated abuse and neglect. Convicted child abusers are returned to the streets, many unable to help their compulsions, only to devastate other young lives and families.

All the Christian-based laws in the land will do nothing until, from leadership down to you and me, the individual citizen, we begin living the law of God rather than seeking political and social expediency. It's time to quit using the First Amendment as a shield for pornographers and others who would hurt and exploit children on the Internet and in other media.

Virtually every convicted child molester and child killer has admitted to being heavily addicted to pornography. Would removing such perverse material lessen the incidents that resulted in the worst: Christin Lamb's death? I don't know. But it's doing something besides sitting by, shaking our heads and saying, "How terrible."

I can not and will not believe that Thomas Jefferson and the others who framed this country through the Constitution and Bill of Rights, intended to protect people who purvey sexually explicit material--especially of children--in the name of artistic freedom and expression.

Can we protect our children from every evil or mishap waiting for them out there? No. We have to be realistic. Stuff happens, as they say. Are there some things within our control as a people, as a society? Yes. It has to begin with you and me. And it can start with a fight against pornography, both that which is available in our communities and on the Internet.

Removing one gun from the hand of one person who might do harm with it would save one life. Removing one outlet of pornography might have a similar effect on the life of one woman or child. A simplistic answer, at best, I admit, but all any of us can do is light our one little candle. Let's light one for Christin Lamb.

Christin's web site: http://www.wtp.net/clamb

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