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Every time I wonder “Why?” I would like to receive a real answer

Francisco Miraval

I have witnessed more than once that situation when a young child, for example, a three-year old boy, answers every request and every explanation with the question, which he repeats again and again: “Why?”

Regardless of what you say or the explanations you provide, the boy will repeat “Why?” again, and again, and again. The scene usually ends when either the boy or the adult he was talking to get tired or exasperated. At the end, the questions were empty and the answers usually meaningless.

I must confess I would like to ask and keep asking “Why?” and to the repeat the question again and again. I have no desire of acting as a three-year old boy. I want to act as an adult who is looking for real answers to real questions, but who finds no answers. In fact, it seems to me that many times, when we, as adults, ask “Why?” they treat us as little children.

Why, for example, if a minor commits a crime he (it is usually a “he”) will be judged as an adult, because it is assume the minor did what he was doing, but if an adult commits a horrendous crime he (it is usually a “he”) may not go to trial, because it is assumed that he was not in full control of his mental abilities at the moment of the crime.

I ask this question because recently a 17-year old amateur goalkeeper in Utah punched a soccer referee in the face because the referee gave him a yellow card. The referee died a few days later and now the young aggressor could be judged as an adult.

At the same time, the suspect in the killing of 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, where scores more were injured, could plea “not guilty for reason of insanity,” because he did not know what he was doing at the time of the crime.

These are two tragedies that should have never happened. We need to give time to justice to act. But there is a change that a minor could be judged as an adult and an adult not judged at all. Why?

And why, for example, some companies will hire a person with no knowledge of Spanish or of the Hispanic community and appoint that person in charge of Hispanic outreach programs? I have seen that situation for a long time at all kinds of companies, agencies, and institutions. I am amazed it is still happening.

Later, perhaps out of desperation, the same person who knows nothing about the Spanish language or the Hispanic community will call us asking for our help and requesting us to teach him or her what we already know how to do? Why?

Obviously, life’s mysteries are deeper than the two examples discussed above. But it seems that nowadays, when somebody really wants to know the meaning of life, he or she will ask that question to his or her cell phone. Why?

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