In speaking to everyone from school teachers, to parents, to students, I’m getting the same message: Keeping our kids out of school does them harm. I hear stories of anxiety, depression, apathy and despair. I hear stories of isolation and separation and the dark mental places young people are finding themselves in… people as young as 7 years old. These young people, these children, they are our future, and we have destroyed an entire year of their lives, a year they will never get back, a year that may affect many of them for years to come, and for what? So that a few thousand people who may have died anyway may have another year of life? That’s quite a trade, and not a very equitable one if you ask me.
I could not allow a child to suffer in such a manner so that an older person or one with infirmities can survive, but that’s what we’ve done. We have sacrificed our youth for those who, for all practical purposes, are already at death’s door. This is a grim and morbid pronouncement to make, but in my heart I believe it to be right. I could never sacrifice those who have just arrived for those who are in the line for departure, and if it came to it I feel I could make that choice, that decision, and sleep comfortably knowing that I did the right thing for our youth, for our future.
That is why I am convinced that our witless and spineless leaders have done us wrong… horribly wrong. And it sickens me to see so many of us still following them, at the expense of our children.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita
