Sympathy in a troubled world

"A troubled young person may bring negative impact to the society later on when they grow up. If we can show our care for them and offer them help when it’s needed, I think we will be able to sustain a better society with love and harmony.” – from Zhigui Du’s eulogy for her son, Jun Lin.
Du and her husband recently laid the ashes of their son to rest in the city of Montreal. Lin was a Chinese student who was attending Montreal’s Concordia University when he was brutally murdered in May of this year. His untimely death made headlines around the world.
Du used to think of her son’s murderer, Luka Magnotta, as the “devil” but has since developed sympathy for Magnotta upon hearing of his troubled childhood.
Du now wants to start up a charity that helps young people in distress.
After following the horrific story of what happened to Jun Lin, and seeing how his mother still has hope in humanity – I started to think about our own Anishinaabe youth.
What Du said about mentoring young people and helping them with their issues to attain a “better society with love and harmony” has never made more sense to me than now – especially after reading about the atrocities certain young First Nations youth have committed recently.
Taking somebody’s life in a violent and pointless way is not what Anishinaabe people traditionally do – there is nothing in the Seven Grandfather teachings (courage, love, humility, respect, honesty, truth, and wisdom) that promotes killing.
Yet, I hear of a young girl’s life being taken by other girls who were under the influence of alcohol. I hear of an old man’s light being snuffed out before its time in a senseless robbery perpetrated by two young people. I hear of a man meeting his end thanks to a youth who decided it was okay to drink and drive on his reservation.
I hear of a teen dying alone in the cold, underground, while three youths go home to brag about what they’ve done.
I start to wonder what’s next. I start to wonder who’s next.
The need for youth mentoring has never been greater than it is now. That saying, “our children are our future” needs to be reconsidered. It needs to be taken seriously.
If our youth grow up with unresolved issues and pain in their hearts, what kind of people will they be when they are older?
What kinds of things will they do?
What kind of community will they run?
What will they contribute?
Everyone has a past. Everyone has been hurt at one point. Not everyone seeks help, though.
Not everyone is heard. Not everyone recognizes the signs of a young person in need.
There’s a website that popped up recently, a few years in the making, by the Thunder Bay Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force. It began when, in 2007, two Thunder Bay youths committed suicide within a week of each other.
I am not implying that those numbers are low, and yes those deaths were very tragic and could have been prevented, but in comparison to all the young Anishinaabe lives lost every day not only to suicide but also by murder and accidental/preventable death? It makes me wonder…
When say, Pikangikum’s first two youth suicide’s took their lives, and the next two took theirs, and the next four took theirs, and etc.… you’d think that by now, a decade or two later since teen suicide started to run rampant across the north, there would be permanent teenage counseling centers set up in the communities.
A person I interviewed recently for work told me “you can’t change the past, so you have to move forward. You have to make yourself better than it.”
I think that sentiment holds true for our youth, for what has been done or hasn’t been done. Whether they want to admit it now, their teenage years are fleeting and they too will become adults.
They don’t know everything. In fact people at my age (a young 29) are still learning about life, but we know enough to help them reach where we are now.
There’s still time to help them.
Now, if our youth grow up with resolved issues and healed hearts, what kind of people will they be when they are older?
What kinds of things will they do?
What kind of community will they run?
What will they contribute?