ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996 TAG: 9604010110
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Monty S. Leitch
SOURCE: MONTY S. LEITCH
RIGHT NOW, somewhere near here, someone you know is slapping a child. She's saying, ``You'd better not take that tone with me, young lady.''
Right now, somewhere near here, someone you know is sleeping one off on the sofa, while back in the kids' room, his 4-year-old daughter is desperately trying to lift her whimpering 2-year-old brother out of his crib, just so she can relieve him of his terrible, cold, stinky diapers.
Right now, somewhere near here, someone you know is telling her son, as she drives him to school, that he is, without a doubt, the stupidest, clumsiest, most worthless little moron she has ever in her life even heard of, let alone known, and the only excuse for his miserable life that she can imagine is that his ape of a father, that ignorant s.o.b., forced her to have a kid when she didn't want one. ``A whole closet full of clothes,'' she's saying, ``and you put on that lousy T-shirt again. Is it any wonder you don't have friends?''
Someone you know. Somewhere near here.
But you know all this, don't you? You've heard the grim statistics a thousand times: more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect every year.
You know that at least three children die every day in this great land of ours because someone they love hits them, or shoots them, or lets them drown in the bathtub or roast in a closed-up car. Or because someone they love drives them to suicide.
Oh, it's terrible. Terrible. You know it is.
But what can you do? What can you do?
You can do what you do. You can take your talents, your gifts, your job, and you can use what you have - whatever you have - to raise a holy ruckus.
Think about this for a minute. What can you do?
Mark Camphouse thought about it. You've heard of Camphouse. He's a composer, an associate professor of music at Radford University, director of their band. But, you're thinking, what in the world can an academic, one in the arts, for pity's sake, do about child abuse?
He can make his music speak his outrage for him.
Camphouse does music. Music is what he can do.
And so he wrote ``Watchman, Tell Us of the Night,'' a single-movement composition for concert band that portrays the anguishing aloneness, lost innocence and hope of children suffering, and surviving, abuse.
Maybe you're thinking, ``Well, fine. Isn't that nice? But what's the point? Will even one child be saved by music?''
This morning, because I've been thinking more about this issue since hearing Camphouse's composition, I've researched it on the Internet. A quick Lycos search discovered 574 sites on the key words ``child abuse,'' and nearly every one of these sites offered links to other sites.
OK, so here I am: one person whose awareness Camphouse has raised. One person, though, who tries very hard not to abuse children.
But what of all the others who've been touched through this composition? What of all those who heard ``Watchman'' performed by Her Majesty's Royal Marine Band; by the bands of the universities of Miami, Calgary and Massachusetts; by Concordia University; by Old Dominion University; at the Interlochen Arts Academy? What of those who, in September, will hear the U.S. Army Band perform ``Watchman'' at the 11th International Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington, D.C.?
Who knows how many of them will be touched, and in what ways? Who knows what child - what children - might be saved by this hymn?
Social action - action for justice - takes many forms. It occurs whenever a person of conscience looks at the world and responds honestly and passionately. Whenever a person of conscience decides to do whatever it is that he or she can do.
Watchman, tell us of the night, what its signs of promise are ... watchman, tell us of the night, for the morning seems to dawn: traveler, darkness takes it flight; doubt and terror are withdrawn.
Monty S. Leitch is a Roanoke Times columnist.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB