Syria is violating the UN Rights of the Child. The children of Syria are being deprived of security, food, shelter and clothing, and their parents (60,000 dead), and education. Here is a link http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/more-than-700000-syrians-have-fled-their-country-mostly-into-jordan-and-lebanon/
But what can the world do about it? When, where, and who to work with, is hard to know. I think we could trust some local minority Christians in Syria with temporary authority to bring peace and kindness towards the majority. But I know, even though this is true, it is politically incorrect to say so. However, I also know the New Testament teaches the Christians of Syria and the world, what is profound; love your enemies, and pray for the good of those who persecute you.
Although the current government of Syria, is violating the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child, hundreds of thousands of average Syrians, are fulfilling the most important right of the child, that is sadly missing from the UN Declaration.
That is the right of children to parents, who are expected to be there, for them, as best they can, always.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrian parents, both Muslim and Christian, and secular, are picking up their children, and leaving everything behind to flee to the safety of neighbouring countries. And God bless them and we should help them. And I trust the Government of Canada is doing just that.
And the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child should be amended to include two more rights. First, as mentioned, the right of children to parents who are expected to be there, for them, as best they can, always.
This right has profound implications for the curriculum of our public school system, for here and in the home, is where it is taught and communicated to children, who will soon be parents themselves, this expectation; the importance of good parenting.
And secondly, the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child should be amended to include the right of children to an education directed by their parents, who have demonstrated that they are there, for them, as best they can, always. Who love them. This is essentially the right to patent directed home schooling or Catholic or denominational or secular schools; whatever the schools the parents, who love them, think best.
This charter right of the child to parent directed education means that never again, could the travesty of Residential Schools happen in our land and this makes it a very good, even essential, proposal for our time.
The right of children to an education directed by their parents, is a natural right. And government is instituted to protect the natural rights of the people; including the rights to life, liberty, and to the property they have worked all their life for.
Children should have a UN right and even a Canadian Charter right, to an education directed by their parents, and not by intellectual elites like Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman or his cohort MLA Kent Hehr, who are on record for wanting to destroy Alberta's "funding following the student", parent directed education system.
Listen Alberta Liberals, do not be so arrogant as to call the faith of other people stupid. This is not Russia, Raj. You do not know everything. If parents choose for their schools, and for themselves, to be a bridge of faith for their children, between what we know and what we do not yet know, then so be it. Their children and their schools, deserve the same per student funding to help with education as every other child.
I believe everyone in Canada agrees with this, our culture and schools should of course teach this, and this is what the Bible teaches; love your neighbour as yourself and be willing to use your God-given freedom of speech to teach others, who are willing to listen, the good reasons to learn from Christ. The Bible and Christian schools, like the long list of great heroes of the Christian faith, from Martin Luther King Jr., Pope John Paul II, John Wesley and Charles Spurgeon, teach what is good.
Listen, Alberta Liberals, do not assume Christian schools foster discrimination for they, like the Bible, foster true love for all people, teach -treat others the way you would like to be treated yourself, teach- love your neighbour as yourself, all neighbours, every neighbour, no exceptions. And to assume anything less on your part is real Liberal intellectual bigotry.
The Alberta PCs and their cousins, the Wildrose, have always respected a child's right to parent-directed education and have made the public school system a great service, offered to parents, for their consideration. And Peter Lougheed always emphasized decentralized decision making, and the people of Alberta, as the engine of Alberta's growth.
Similarly, we the people, should not expect the Minister of Education to be responsible for the education of all the children of Alberta. Rather, the Minister of Education should expect that parents will choose the best education they can for their children, and that in the long run, this decentralized decision making, will produce the best results.
P.S. The UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child - to education - should take precedence over the right of the Alberta Teachers Association to strike.