As the anniversary of 9/11 approaches, many of us wonder how to make the world our children live in a better place. For me, Mahatma Gandhi’s words convey this message best, “If we are to reach real peace in the world, we shall have to begin with the children.”
How can we remember 9/11 while making a positive impact on our children? We can start by thanking the “helpers.” We talk a lot about looking for the helpers within a tragedy and that is a wonderful thing to teach our children, but as we remember 9/11 and the victims and heroes of that horrific day, maybe it would be a good idea to thank the helpers we encounter every day.
What if this year, on the anniversary of 9/11 we took some time to teach our littles to thank those that help our communities all year long? How about thanking a firefighter? What if we baked some cookies and dropped them off at our local fire station? What if we thanked an ambulance driver for the gift of their service to our community? What if we made a poster of thanks and took it to our local police station? What if we gave a verbal thank you to each and every community worker we saw throughout the day and showed our littles how to do the same?
We might just make the world a little more peaceful and a little bit safer. And what could be better way to remember the fallen than that?
Laura Fogarty
Editor, Ask Lala
Laura Fogarty writes “Ask Lala” for the Stop Abuse Campaign. She is a mother, an advocate and the author of two children’s abuse prevention books: I’M THE BOSS OF ME! and WE ARE JUST ALIKE!