Seven Seconds...

Back in the 1990's Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour recorded a song called Seven Seconds, basically the song talks of the fact that every seven seconds a child is born into this world.  That child does not care about the colour of it's skin or the language or religion of it's parents.  That child does not care whether mum or dad or big brother or big sister is disabled, either through the hand of fate or the hand of man.

While floating around the video jukebox that is YouTube looking for something totally unrelated with that song, I came across a video blog recorded by a young girl named Emily Perry from the USA (I think that was an American accent).  This awesome young lady had had a debate in her classroom that day about whether "People with disabilities are less valuable to society than "Normal" people".  Young Emily has disabilities in her family so she obviously argued against the subject. 

She stood up against the rest of the class as they were arguing that disabled people should be culled first if there was a global catastrophe.  She stood alone in a room of her peers baying for blood.  She alone stood up for those who could not stand up for themselves.

You can find Emily's video here.

This young lady is an example of why I cannot give up on young people. There is good in most of them, it is just their parents and families that give them the wrong slant on life. 

One of Emily's detractors annoyed me so much that I had to comment.  He, like so many people (yes, I am looking at those in the Palace of Westminster!) forget that it takes a split second to go from "Normal" to "Disabled".  Christopher Reeve, the actor that played Superman in three films, was a fit active man who went riding one day and was in a wheelchair on a ventilator for the rest of his life. 

He went from Normal to broken and it only took a millisecond.

The time it took to fall from a horse to the ground...

less than a second,

less than one thousandth of a second to separate his spinal cord and spend the next nine years tied to a machine to do his breathing for him. 

One seven thousandth of the space between two babies being born into the world on average.

And once about fifteen years ago, one of those seven second intervals produced an angel.  Would that there were more angels like Emily in this world that would get up and stand up for those of us that can't stand.  People who would get up and shout out about the injustices done to those of us who can't shout.

It's strange how looking for something that said I was overlooked by my fellow man should lead to a connection between a wonderful young lady and babies being born.  This world is a STRANGE place.

Oh and for the entertainment value, 7 Seconds by Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry