Who are the real role models of Your Children?
CCN Team
HOPEFIELD:- These days, it’s easy to see who our children admire, you only have to walk through the streets of our towns.
The way they walk, the way they dress, the way they talk, it reflects who they look up to. Unfortunately, these role models are no longer teachers, sports heroes, or community leaders.
They are gangsters.
Yesterday was pensioners’ payday in South Africa, and i was in Vredenburg, but it was not a day of peace or pride. Elderly people were shopping, accompanied by children who should have been in a classroom. Young boys standing on street corners, smoking cigarettes, using foul language, their attitudes defiant and aggressive.
It forces one to ask:
Where are the parents?
Where is the leadership?
We can no longer say, “the children have given up.”
The harsh truth is – many parents gave up a long time ago.
Respect in the home is disappearing, and parents no longer have control over their children, and some don’t even try anymore. Meanwhile, our news feeds are flooded with stories of young men, somtimes woman being sentenced for murder, drug trafficking, and armed robbery.
These are the “heroes” of the street.
These are the names our children are learning, not for academic achievements or athletic excellence, but for fear and infamy.
So what is left for our children to be proud of?
Isn’t it time we, as communities, start speaking up?
Start telling new stories?
Start celebrating real heroes, those who rose from the mud and chose dignity over destruction?
Or are we going to remain silent, until an entire generation is lost?
Because in many places…
It’s already happening.
What do you see in your community?
What must we do next?
Share your voice.
