Dear Future President,

Children are the greatest aspects of the future, present, and past and I’m sure you’d agree with me. Unfortunately, some children are bullied or neglected. Some children are born with birth defects and often are neglected, bullied, or both.

First, it is very true that being an adult is hard, but I don’t think that it gives anyone the right to assume that a child’s life is easy because we don’t have to pay bills or provide for their family. I am definitely not painting a canvas with one brush but some adults think that way. Roughly, 3.2 million students have to face bullying each year and most have to face it alone. Children who have birth defects are at a much higher risk, since bully’s targets who they assume are the weakest.

Students who are bullied should never understand why a bully thinks it’s okay to bully them and I can only imagine how a student with a birth defect  might feel. Maybe they feel as if it is a good reason why they are bullied because they are different, so are the healthy students who are bullied and the bullies themselves. Many students, including myself, feel as if we cannot talk to anyone about what is going on because it can sometimes be embarrassing. Some students try to talk to someone at their school, such as a counselor, principal, or teachers, when they cannot talk to their parents and even they sometimes overlook it, “it’s a part of growing up”. It happens. I know that there are a lot of advertisements and signs about how important bullying can affect anyone’s life and I know everyone won’t be able to understand it or merely avoid it on purpose but I want to ask that you don’t give up with trying to push that message forward.

Second, I try to believe that neglect doesn’t exist because majority of the time it happens in a house or inside. Neglect doesn’t happen in a home filled with love and happiness. Unlike bullying, neglect happens inside because there are no people watching or judging you. Like bullying, both circumstances are usually done where there is no authority around, like teachers or police. I’ve heard disheartening stories about neglect, about  parents who wanted to have a child that was the opposite sex of the child they had so they completely disowned her, severe cases where a child who acted like a dog, she would bark when someone came near her and she was very filthy and so were her surroundings.

Parents who neglect their child or children with birth defects may feel disappointed or embarrassed, and others sadly may feel that since they are different they do not have to provide for that child. A child is raised to be whoever their parents wants them to be, how their parents want them to look at people or things or a child is raised to be who they want to be or live freely. But what happens when a child is not raised at all, or has no education? Are they forced to teach themselves? Is the first creature they lay their eyes on going to their best friend at first sight? Do they learn from them? I believe so.

Finally, suicide is common for student who have experienced bullying. Death for a neglected child is to common and likely to happen. They both can happen in the severest case… they both can happen in less severe cases. It is unpredictable… but it is too predictable. It is easy…for some. Children are the greatest aspects of the future, present, and past, and if you are a human being I’m sure you’d agree with me… but what if they were damaged, what if they were hurting? What if they don’t feel loved, born different and are ignored by society? Grasp negative attention for someone who feels like it is humorous to call out their flaws and humiliate them? Are they still the future were they ever the past, did they live beautifully in the present? Did we overlook them until they disappeared? Did we care about our future?

Sincerely, 

Kamela M.