After the recent shooting in Charleston, S.C., a South Carolina girl asked her mother, “Why is the world full of broken people?”
“Why can’t the good people teach the bad people to be good?” seven-year-old Madeleine wondered. “Just because someone is different doesn’t mean you have to do something bad to them.”
Her mother could not answer some of her daughter’s questions, ABC News reported. So Madeleine ended up drawing a picture, which is spreading through Facebook and Twitter.
With her mother’s help, she Googled pictures of the shooting victims and of the Emanuel A.M.E. Church.
Her picture shows people of all races linking arms in front of the church, resembling the thousands who congregated on Charleston’s Ravenel Bridge Sunday night. Above the church, the girl drew nine angels representing the victims. The drawing is strikingly similar to this week’s cover of The New Yorker.
She started a second picture of multicolored animals, which says, “Being color blind is awesome. You should give it a try.”
The Charleston shooting has revived debates over complicated issues related to race, gun control and mental health. But a child’s drawing shows how a simple message can help the nation come together and heal.
Emily Leayman is an intern at the Washington Examiner
