Excerpt

In crafting this trilogy, I thought it rational and orderly to deal in the first book with the global view. If you have read it, you know that I offered some ideas as to what each one of us can do to make this a better world. Looking for a Better World seems to me something that is achievable, even in the quicksand of todays troubled planet. Looking For a Better World - What Every Person Can Do! became the first book.

The next reasonable focus seemed to be on children. Obviously, we will look to them for a more permanent cure for global ills. When I researched the ideas for this work, it occurred to me that we need badly to give our children expanded rights, unrestricted respect and room to maneuver. This is another way of saying empowerment.

Empowerment, depending on where you look for a definition, most certainly is, at least: to give power or authority to, to enable, to permit. It is a wonderful concept that will grow on you, if you pursue it and live it as an idea. It is especially relevant for children. It has been my observation that we, as adults, have not done the best job possible in empowering our children, especially to enable or to permit.

As the complexity of the planet grows, with quantum leaps in technology and ever increasing threats of political instability, so must the empowerment of our progeny keep pace. With the advent of the computer, and its arrival now as a commonplace household appliance, our children are exposed not only to the much heralded pornography, but also to the wondrous world of internet browsing and research. For learning, the computer is unparalleled as a resource. It also portends that children have access to just about anything they care to investigate, both desirable and undesirable. Much the same can be said of television. Satellite access now makes hundreds of channels available to children. By the way, children have no problem understanding and using the new technologies. The smallest of the gnomes is computer literate... it is the new birthright!

So as the technology for child empowerment is in place, so must adults recognize the new maturities that have unfolded in the new generations. Children mature much faster now than ever in Western history. It is the result of a shrinking globe and the technologies, of course, but also a product of New Age thinking, permissiveness, intercultural breeding, lack of respect for tradition and exposure to the mistakes of their elders. Not all of that is necessarily bad, but clearly, our children are in a different world and their adjustment to it has produced a new maturity.

It is for that reason that I developed a series of lectures for Middle School and High School students, some portions of which are included here for your perusal. One of the principal thrusts of the lectures is to give students good, solid reasoning as to why they should continue an education beyond High School. And more education is, clearly, a stunning empowerment tool.

It also occurred to me that there must be some empowerment programs around the globe that might be worth of mention. I researched hundreds of such programs. Indeed, I managed to ferret out some remarkable, unique and worthy programs, both here and around the globe. From the hundreds of such programs, I chose the ones that I felt were truly unique and those programs which, in my judgment, had the viability to produce results of distinction. My hope is that someone reading this will think enough of a particular program to clone it. More empowerment.

And, lastly, in addition to the topics you might expect to find in an empowerment study, I have included some chapters that deal with the jeopardy of youth. Our troubled world has exacerbated the peril that our children face, with the threats of drugs, alcohol, abuse from all sources, slavery, sexual violence, prostitution, disorders and internet dangers. Protection from these perils is another empowerment necessity.

And join me in a pledge: I will not let a day pass without doing some kindness... and if that kindness is a to a child, so will my Spirit be even further brightened, and might the kindness travel to others who will, in turn, sprinkle empowerment on the faces of children everywhere.