Opinion

Weaving the Fabric of Society

By JOHN GATHRIGHT

Headline news, Friday, Feb. 4, 2000: "Seventeen-year-old children's rights advocate Craig Kielburger arrives in Israel to encourage children to implement peace on a grassroots level."

Craig founded the international organization Free the Children (www.freethechildren.org) at the age of 12. Now 17, he was recently given the title of "global leader of tomorrow" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

I first heard about Craig when my cousin sent me a clipping about him from a Canadian newspaper. There was also a short note that said, "John, I heard his speech * it was fantastic! You would have loved it! He has real vision and the power to change the world. Now, all he needs is the support and help of adults who can see the vision too! It is great to have a young Canadian hero."

Craig has changed the world. Free the Children, which he started with friends in his home, has become an international organization with offices in over 27 countries.

It has opened more than 100 schools and rehabilitation centers for children worldwide, helping poor families to free children from hazardous work and starting leadership programs for youth.

Craig is a fantastic leader and deserves much credit for his vision and accomplishments. I consider him a hero for both teenagers and adults. And I feel that credit should be given to all of the adults who were able to catch his vision and help to strengthen his organization.

Craig himself has offered much praise to his supporters, including teachers, lawyers, fund raisers, political experts, world leaders and especially the army of faceless, nameless people who offered praise, a handshake or even a smile.

All of the busy people who took their time to listen and see his vision — they, too, are part of the material that makes up his hero's cape. I hope the encouraging e-mails I sent a few years ago could be counted as a tiny thread.

Recently, a 17-year-old made headline news in Japan, too, but it was for a hideous murder in Aichi Prefecture. The power that 17-year-olds have to move society — whether to pride or to despair — has been very obvious to me lately.

I can't help but feel that the faceless, nameless adults that had a big hand in helping Free the Children failed this other 17-year-old. My proximity to his neighborhood may have added to my sensitivity.

For a motherless boy hooked on horror novels, could a kind word from some soul moments before the crime have affected the outcome? Could more care, support and compassion from relatives, teachers and neighbors during his delicate childhood have given him a positive vision?

Would many tiny threads of kindness have been enough to make him a hero's cape, rather than a villain's cloak?

I wonder if I ever met him in passing. If our eyes met, did I smile?

As a society it is easy to turn a blind eye to the problems of youths. We also tend to forget that the threads of Craig's hero's cape and those of the Japanese youth's cloak are all part of the patchwork quilt that is the society in which we live.

Shukan ST: May 26, 2000

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