Offerings,” Jared Morningstar

Offerings

Jared Morningstar

Once I saw a shopping mall host a child beauty pageant.

Little darlings dressed in evening gowns, bathing suits, outfits too mature for them, pranced across the stage to the rhythm of hand clapping.

The silent, disgusted majority observed at a distance, their faces as uncomfortably wrinkled as the plastic shopping bags they carried, grumbling quietly to each other:

“How dare these parents prop up their little girls like helpless offerings for the pleasure of perverted old men?” “All for prize money. Infuriating!” “How sick that this place promotes such a terrible event?” “These malls are dying. They’ll do anything to grab on to any money left to be made.” “Evil. Greedy. All of them.”

But pass on by they did; they had shopping to do, lives to return to.

I think of this now, as our leaders encourage schools to open their doors and parents to sacrifice their children to the invisible, infectious beast that awaits inside. I can almost hear the monster applause and the cha-ching of political cash registers.

I can only hope, this time, the angry majority refuses to stay silent.