A Father's Risk: Protests & Snipers

Tim Graves, M.S.Ed.

I submitted this letter to the Albany (NY) Times Union this morning.  TG 10/24/02

My daughter, a first year student at Hiram College in Ohio, and my son, a home school high school sophomore, will be going to the Washington, DC anti-war protests on Saturday, Oct. 26.  I will be teaching my college class that morning but I know my thoughts, prayers, and worries will be with them. 

My wife and I have been asked, "How can you let them go with the sniper in the DC area?"  My reply is, "How can I NOT let them go?"  My son and daughter are committed Christians who believe based on their faith that war against Iraq is immoral and unethical.  They know that people of faith and conscience must take risks.  As their father, I must allow them to go.  I must take the risk of losing my own children to a sniper because of the thousands and thousands of children of other parents whose children have died as the result of sanctions in Iraq and our bombs in Afghanistan.  I must allow them to go because I believe citizens must speak up now before more fathers lose their children.  I must allow my children to endure a small risk in the hopes of preventing a war that will surely bring high risks to other people's children.  So, I will be at the local protest in Albany Friday afternoon and be in my classroom when my children take their faith to the White House.  Mr. Bush, will you be listening to the children?

Tim Graves

Proud father of Jessica, 18, and Isaac, 15