Looking out: The children
By Brandon Astor Jones
"Standing with reluctant feet,/ Where the brook and river meet,/ Womanhood and childhood fleet!" — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 180782
ARE THESE CHRISTIANS?
They demand that I kill many others like me
Long before I am twelve, they take me
Yes, of course, they rape me and trade me
There is no escape; when I run they chase me
If and when I resist they vow to brutally erase me
By the thousands they abduct others like me
I have no dolls or toys ... only the babies they give me
Who does all these evil violent things to me?
Well now, I thought that you would never ask —
The Lord's Resistance Army!
ARE THESE CHRISTIANS?
A large number of Ugandan children are being raped, savagely beaten and even hacked to death if they refuse to be pressed into the Lord's Resistance Army's service. One young victim said that we should "tell the world what is happening to [them] ... so that other children don't have to pass through this violence". I agree.
If you want to know more about how you can help the children the poem above is written in painful recognition of, contact: Amnesty International Australia, Private Bag 23, Broadway NSW 2007. E-mail: [The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA. Brandon and his friends are trying to raise funds to pay for a lawyer for his appeal. If you can help, please make cheques payable to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account and post to 41 Neutral St, North Sydney NSW 2060, or any Commonwealth Bank, account No. 2127 1003 7638.]