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.
Olson Huff, MD 
So well stated and powerful
Sent from my iPad
>
Thank you, Judy.
Time for lunch!!!
wonderful piece! thanks for sharing. hope to see you this weekend in Concord. Dave
Thank you Dave
We, all of us, must push for better leadership for our children and their future.
Great words, Olson. We can only hope that the right people are listening.
Thanks, Merilace
Somehow, we must hope for leaders to listen and act on what is right!!
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!
Thank you for your kind words. We must push for better leaders!!
Beautifully said Olson! Thank you for helping to bring perspective to our daily concerns. Jay Berkelhamer
Thank you, Jay
Hope all is well. Miss seeing you!
Amen, Olson. Yours is always the voice of reason and for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Thanks, Stefanie, good to hear from you.
A Manifesto on Justice for Children. Come back to EFFJ soon. Best, steve
Sent from my iPad
>
Thanks, Steve,
Will be back soon!!
Thanks for these important words, Olson. You always have a way of speaking the truth in love.
Barbara, always appreciate your comments and your thoughts.
Olson
Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Olson. So great to be with you for dinner recently.
Thank you, Kim. we certainly enjoyed dinner with you and Jim as well!
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
Thank you, Mahan
Once again you have inspired me into action!!