The Caruana Galizia boys went to San Anton School and the school has remembered them in their darkest hours and encouraged its students and parents, teachers, alumni and members of the school community to march before the Valletta demonstration this Sunday afternoon.
It is encouraging to see educators lead by example and helping school children feel empathy, duty, solidarity, kindness, courage and love even in the face of fear.
I saw my 7-year-old daughter cry because in her mind what happened to Daphne could happen to anyone who blogs. And she figured I do that. Her mother reassured her as we should as parents to give our children the promise of security.
But children deserve to understand that safety and prosperity and justice and fairness do not happen to us by entitlement. We must fight for them everyday because there are people around us that would stop at nothing to take them away from us.
We explained to her that evil people took Daphne away from us. A woman we admired and we loved for her courage and her tireless and selfless work to help ensure we live in a safe country and a fair community. We explained to her that our loss was great but nothing compared with the loss her family suffered. And that it is right that we stand by them in their greatest hour of need. And it is right to tell the evil people who took her away that they are the cowards and they do not scare us.
As always with children that age they understand far more than you think. They fear loss, particularly of their parents who represent the whole world for them. But they have an overpowering instinct of solidarity with strangers who suffer.
She is now so keen to be there on Sunday and in her own way, by being there, make Matthew, Andrew and Paul feel a little less bad.
There must have been many conversations like this in many families and in many classrooms this week. At the same time as I despair at the indifference of many, many people during this week, my daughter gives me hope. Children do not condition their judgement by greed and profit. Their intuitive understanding of right and wrong is not confused by the promise of more money.
I applaud the initiative of the educators at San Anton School. May the sight of children in Vallettan this Sunday shake the slumber and ambiguity of many adults and guilt this country into realising just how poorly we are serving them by building a country where money comes before love, greed before responsibility, and loyalty before truth.