Waiting in the Wings

Their words bounce around, blasting the air like overinflated basketballs, exhorting all who will listen to vote! Choose me they shout, declaring that they and they alone will provide the solutions to all of America’s concerns.

America will be made great again! Our borders will be made safe! Immigrants will be kept out! Big business will be made to pay! The Constitution will be protected! No one will mess with our right  to bear arms! Terrorists will be bombed into oblivion!

And so it goes. These words and many more like them, bouncing off the media walls, proclaim to represent the needs of the nation and its future.

What is not being said, however, are the most important words of all. Largely ignored, except for an occasional afterthought, are those who wait in the wings for the time they will move onto the stage of the future and inherit  the consequences of words unsaid. Patiently and expectantly they wait. Their hope is that they will hear, in the midst of all the rhetoric, words that will lead to a foundation upon which they may stand that will declare the world they inherit to be habitable and safe.

It is they, our children, who wait.

And why do they want to hear that which is not being said? They wait to hear words of reassurance that they will be safe from the violence of guns; they want to breathe air that is clean and refreshing and they do not want to live on a planet tormented by nature’s wrath as the globe warms to dangerous levels. As they wait to move onto the stage they will occupy, they fidget in anticipation of good schools, enough food to eat and safe and welcoming homes and neighborhoods – no mater what color of skin they have or religious beliefs they hold. When they are sick, injured or in pain, they want to be cared for by systems of care, not buried in debt.

Yes, those waiting in the wings for their time to enter the stage want to hear many things. Thus far, however, they have only heard words that are empty, devoid of substance, and designed to blame, divide and confuse. It seems time that those who seek to be the leaders of today should listen closely to the cries of those who will play on the  stages of  the future.

It is time to pay attention to those waiting in the wings. It is time to think of our children. For those who choose to do so, it might just be possible that from among them will come the leaders we all need.

 

 

About Olson Huff, MD

Olson Huff is a pediatrician, author, husband, father of three sons and grandfather of four dynamic and growing grandchildren. Often described as a visionary leader and eclectic thinker, his efforts have always been to acknowledge the power, value and delight to be found in ALL children. As a pediatrician he has used his skills as a clinician to provide healing, as an author his words to reveal the spirit of children and as an advocate to plead their case from the state house of politics to the White House of policy changes. His vision is that ALL children will have the very best start in life from their earliest years of development to the brightness of the future they aspire to shape. He believes ALL children have a right to affordable, quality health care, clean and safe environments and homes that cherish their presence.
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20 Responses to Waiting in the Wings

  1. judleavitt76 says:

    So well stated and powerful

    Sent from my iPad

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  2. David Tayloe says:

    wonderful piece! thanks for sharing. hope to see you this weekend in Concord. Dave

  3. Merilace says:

    Great words, Olson. We can only hope that the right people are listening.

  4. Dan McFatter says:

    Thank you for these insightful words that place all the polical noise in correct perspective. Amazingly well said! Will past it on in hopes of others reading this. Thank you again!

  5. Jay Berkelhamer says:

    Beautifully said Olson! Thank you for helping to bring perspective to our daily concerns. Jay Berkelhamer

  6. Amen, Olson. Yours is always the voice of reason and for those who cannot speak for themselves.

  7. Steve Kaagan says:

    A Manifesto on Justice for Children. Come back to EFFJ soon. Best, steve

    Sent from my iPad

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  8. Barbara McLean says:

    Thanks for these important words, Olson. You always have a way of speaking the truth in love.

  9. Kim McGuire says:

    Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Olson. So great to be with you for dinner recently.

  10. Mahan Siler says:

    Olson, Again you spoke truth so clearly and forcefully. Children waiting in the wings — for what? —is a perfect metaphor, and will stay with me.

    Mahan

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