Teenage girls find real beauTypage 7 - RECORD.net.au

EDITORIALStorming the BastilleJames StandishMy eldest daughter and I recently strolled down theChamps-Élysées hand in hand, taking in all the sights,sounds, smells and a few of the tastes of Paris in spring.We visited little boutiques, grand repositories of theworld’s greatest art, we sat in cafes wearing our matchingberets; we went up towers, over walls, across gardens andthrough so many doors we lost count.Was it good? No. It was glorious!As far as dad-daughter outings go, I admit this one wasa bit on the extravagant side. But as they say, we have toseize the moment. And for me, it seems just a few monthsago our tiny little girl was born—two and-a-half monthspremature, weighing just a little over a kilogram, and strugglingmoment by moment to cling to life. I never imaginedwhilewe sat by her tiny body in the neonatal intensive careunit, that one day she would grow into a girl who makesthe whole world sparkle anew.On our final day in Paris, we visited the Musée d’Orsay.What an experience—it seems almost obscene that onegallery holds so much magnificent art! As we exited thegallery, however, the mood on the street was rather lessrhapsodic. We were greeted by a long line of armouredpolice cars, with police in full riot gear, and in the distancethe rumbles of a massive protest could be heard. Mydaughter, ever curious, wanted us to get close to have alook. “Your mum would kill me if I took you into the middleof a French protest,” I told her. After all, as anyone who’sseen Les Miserables knows, if there is one thing the Frenchknow how to do right, it’s put on a protest.But this protest wasn’t by farmers dumping their tomatoesin the street or unemployed youths ransacking theirneighbourhood; this protest was by hundreds of thousandsof people—from what I could see most of them young andvery vibrant—rallying in favour of the family. As their leader,Ludovine de la Rochère, pointed out, millions of people inFrance have now joined in protests nationwide to save thefamily without a single car being burned or shop ransacked.Such restraint seems almost unpatriotic. And what exactlyare they protesting for? She put it this way:“Our belief, held by most of the country, rests first onthe equality of children . . .”Equal rights for children; now there is a novel idea. Aswe watched the protest from a safe distance on the Pontde la Concorde, I had to wonder what a society that accordedchildren equal rights would look like. What wouldabortion law look like, for example? Considering thedevastating impact of divorce on children, would we retainpermissive divorce laws? Would we permit the creationof children from anonymous parents, whom the childrennever have a right to meet or even know the identity of?And would we adopt policies that encourage adults to createand raise children in families where children never havethe joy of a mum and a dad?If those questions were not enough, I wondered how wewould organise our broader society if children had equalrights? Would one generation of adults pass on enormousnational debts for their children to service? Would Westernsocieties tolerate youth unemployment rates at twice tothree times the rates enjoyed by older adults? How wouldwe treat our environment? Would we permit huge multinationalfast food companies to lure our children into obesitywith omnipresent advertising and promotions?What, in total, would we have to change in order toachieve equal rights for children?Looking at objective indicators of the mental health ofchildren in Western nations, there appears to be compellingreasons to change direction. Could it be that Ludovinede la Rochère is right; that it’s time to storm the Bastille ofleftover bad ideas from the sexual revolution and overturnits archaic policies of social re-engineering that are currentlybeing championed as the future? Has it come timeto shift our collective focus away from self-actualisationof adults and onto the core needs of our children? Has thetime really come for childhood equality?For a version of this editorial with pics, links, stats, songand comments on .James Standish is editor of RECORD.Dr Barry Oliver Senior Consulting EditorJames Standish EditorJarrod Stackelroth Associate editorKent Kingston Assistant editorDora Amuimuia Sales & marketingTracey Bridcutt CopyeditorLinden Chuang Assistant editor - digitalElena Janakijovska Graphic Designtwitter.com/RECORDadventistLetters editor@record.net.auNews & Photos news@record.net.auNoticeboard ads@record.net.auhttp://record.net.auMail: Adventist Media NetworkLocked bag 1115Wahroonga, NSW 2076, AustraliaPhone (02) 9847 2222Fax (02) 9847 2200SubscriptionsMailed within Australia and NZ$A43.80 $NZ73.00Other prices on applicationsubscriptions@record.net.au(03) 5965 6300Cover credit: Erna Johnson“Prayer during the ‘Real beauty’conference for teenage girls in theSolomon Islands.”Official news magazine of the South PacificDivision Seventh-day Adventist ChurchABN 59 093 117 689Vol 118 No 13