Continuance

Like most of America's non-profit organizations, things have changed for A Minor Consideration. A radical shift in financial priorities is changing the landscape, as it should. The generosity of our citizens is rightly being directed toward the victims of September 11th's tragedy. Many dedicated advocates have had to acknowledge that in a time of national crisis their particular concerns must be placed in the context of relative importance, an acknowledgement of reality that many feel is long over-due. Our primary mission at A Minor Consideration remains in place; the protection of children working in the Entertainment and Sports world, and by extension, all working children, here and elsewhere around the world. As this nation contemplates the awful reality of War we seek to remind everyone that children matter. When we speak of "a future good" or of "a better world," aren't we really talking about the children who will inhabit that future? There are signs that America has come to its senses. Thus the following remarks.

On America's playing fields this past weekend a glimmer of hope for the more positive possibilities open to this nation in the wake of the September 11th tragedy began to appear. These are games, we've discovered, not real life.

Real Life is an indelible image of a passenger jet nosing into a white tower. Real life is watching an architectural monument crumble. Real life is being a witness to the murder of 6,500 innocent people.

The Thursday night hockey game last week was interrupted by the fan's demand that the President's speech be maintained on the large screen televisions above the arena floor. That marked the beginning. There had six fights in the first two periods. Then the President spoke. The absurdity of the previous two period's mayhem was apparent to everyone. The Game was called a Draw and the hockey players lined up to shake hands at center ice. It was as if the collective mind in that arena suddenly slapped its forehead and said, "This isn't War. It's a hockey game."

Given the number of reservists in professional sports it doesn't take much imagination to understand that the fellow across the scrimmage line just might be your back up in the very near future on a real battlefield. The defenseman guarding the net might very well be one of the people carrying your litter when that terrorist's bullet with your name on it strikes home. Thoughts of the brave men and women on United Flight 93 who, acting on the barest information, selflessly gave their lives to protect yet another assault on a symbol of this nation. It didn't matter that they didn't have time to plan or prepare. They were true Americans…heroes to us all. We can never repay them…except to learn from their example.

All across America at high school games fans on both sides of the field cheered when a gawky kid who had just lost his uncle or his dad or his cousin got the ball and scored a touchdown. It wasn't US against THEM. It was, on most of our playing fields, just US.

This was more than a matter of the senses. You could see it…these not-so-subtle changes. When a player went down with an injury both teams gathered to offer words of sympathy, and sometimes prayers on bended knee. In dozens of New York and DC suburbs there were weekend games in which contestants on either side of the ball had lost mothers or fathers or someone as close as the next-door neighbor.

Why, some ask, are we playing these games at all? The answer lies in the purest meaning of these contests. It's not Victory or Defeat, for these terms have taken on their true and significant meaning. We gather at these contests for the fraternity of witnessing a joyful contest played within rules, to share in the sheer exuberance of an athlete doing what most of us cannot do. It's human. We need to be together…not from the sterile remove of our living room via television, but shoulder-to-shoulder, face-to-face.

The time has come for us to remove the world those things that are harmful to children, from terrorists to mindless politicians, from agenda-driven educators to pitiless captains of industry.

A Minor Consideration will continue its work whether its budget is large or small. Lani O'Grady's death this week, in the midst of our nation's trial, was an unwanted reminder that Life, and our work, goes on. There are consequences when known threats to the welfare of children are left unattended. Each of us must do what we can to set things right.