Every Child Matters?

In my early Salvation Army ministry, each year brought a new slogan focusing on evangelism and service. While most are long forgotten, one has resonated with me since its introduction forty-plus years ago: Every Child Matters. Specially designed pins were distributed (still available on E-Bay) and its own catchy theme song established the simple theological underpinnings for its work: “if they [children] mattered to Him [Jesus] they must matter to me.” 

Most religions and cultures accept the premise that every child matters, as evidenced in the news of the last few weeks, especially as we’ve heard reports on the soccer coach and twelve young team members trapped within a cave system in Thailand. At first, authorities were unable to locate them, but finally successfully made contact on day nine. Now, attention is focused on how to get them out. Engineers ask, can enough water be pumped out before the deluge comes again? Thailand’s Navy Seals wonder, can the boys be taught to use diving equipment to escape, a dangerous proposal since most can’t swim? Tesla’s Elon Musk even offered his assistance, as the world echoes: every child matters. 

Their dilemma reminds me of baby Jessica, who captured the nation’s attention more than thirty years ago when trapped in a well. First responders determined she was still alive by hearing her sing “Winnie the Pooh.” Broadcast nationally on CNN, the toddler was rescued after an agonizing fifty-eight hours, and the nation breathed a sigh of relief. Every child matters. 

On Canada’s Arctic Archipelago, Aaron Gibbons was mauled to death on July 3 as he put himself between his children and a polar bear. The children were unharmed (although traumatized). 

In other images, our national commitment to “every child matters” has been sorely tested as we’ve watched children torn apart from their parents at the southwest border of our country. Their reunification has been slow and problematic. Yeni Gonzalez was held in an immigration detention center in Arizona while her three children, ages eleven, nine and six, were shipped to New York City. Caring Americans, strangers to Yeni, arranged to post her bond and drive her across the country, and she was finally able to see her children after forty-five days. Her daughter gave her a blue and white lollipop. The children, however, were not released to their mother. Every child matters? 

Even those children who have been able to stay with a parent face steep challenges. Former Ashland resident Rev. Adam Baker visited the border, where he helped Kristen eat her hot soup while her mother, Vivianne, sat across the table in a Catholic Charities respite center. They fled violence and gangs in Guatemala, hoping to travel to a family member’s home in Phoenix. They traveled for fifteen days, seeking asylum in the U.S. Now to wait and to pray.

Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow traveled to Norwalk, Ohio, the community Ashlanders drive through on Rt. 58, heading to Lake Erie or Cedar Point. He met twelve-year-old Alex Galvez, whose mother Nora was lured to the break room with a promise of donuts, only to be taken into custody in an ICE raid at a Sandusky garden center. Now Alex lives with his eighteen-year-old sister, afraid to leave his home in the Norwalk trailer park.  

First responders don’t base their rescue response on whether the Thai boys are rich or poor, or whether they were reckless. They didn’t ask who was watching baby Jessica or how she happened to fall into the well. They responded because a child was in danger.

Dads don’t question their own chances of survival when faced with the attack of a polar bear. And desperate parents who fear for their children’s safety will do what they believe can protect their kids. I would do the same.

I understand the desperation experienced by Vivianne, Yeni, and Nora, and the fear in the faces of their children. And I wonder why the greatest country on earth cannot care as much about Alex, Kristen, and a little girl holding a blue and white lollipop in Harlem as we do about twelve boys in a cave in Thailand.