Don’t Close the Blinds...

I Do not know who wrote this, and I could not find the with a quick search . Nevertheless a great read!

The other day, my son wanted to know why America goes to war... I told my son to look out of our front living room window.

I said "Son, tell me what you see?"

"I see trees and cars and our neighbor's houses." he replied.

"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are the President."

My son responded, "OK."

"Now I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country."

"I want you to pretend you see the leader of that nation there (I pointed across the street) come out of his house with his wife. He has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, and then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and they are afraid of their father. You see all of this, what do you do?"

"Dad?"

"What do you do son?"

"I'd call the police."

"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations. They take your call. They listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then?"

"I’m not sure, the police are supposed to help!"

"They don't want to, because they say that it is not their or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it."

"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.

"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is a leader of another country turn around and do the same thing to his children."

"He kills them?"

"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"

"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him." he says.

"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him.”

"But Dad, I NEED help! I can't stop him by myself!"

I ask him, "Well, what else can you do?”

"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"

"What Dad?"

"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then - he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in the window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"It’s time to do something dad…"

I raise my voice for effect, "WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"I'd close the blinds, Dad."

"Why?"

"Because... the police are supposed to help people who need them and they won't help. You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either they won't help me stop him. I'm afraid.... I can't do it by myself Dad. I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and do nothing so, I'm just going to close the blinds and go turn on the TV so I can't see what he's doing... and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."

My son thinking it was over bowed his head in thought. He needed to understand something else so I continued:

"Son"

"Yes, Dad?"

"Open the blinds - that man.... he's at your front door... "WHAT DO YOU DO?"

My son looks at me, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his fists and looks me square in the eyes and without hesitation he says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD! I'M NOT GOING LET HIM HURT MOM OR MY SISTER! I'M GOING FIGHT HIM, DAD!"

A tear rolled down my cheek and I grabbed my son and hugged him tight, and said... "Don’t ever let it become too late to fight him, when he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son. You should stop him BEFORE he kills his wife, and his children and the old lady across the way. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before it’s too late."

“Do you remember who Adolph Hitler is son?”

“I do father, we learned a bit about him in school.”

I told him, “The same kinds of people who are calling America bad today are the same kinds of people who let Hitler grow to be powerful enough to threaten the entire world. When America was drawn into their war because they did nothing, America lost millions of men and women to save everyone else.”

I ask him, “Do you know who Edmund Burke is?”

“No dad, I don’t”

“He once said, All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”