【正文】 the right to be loved without having to earn it
　　2. the right to be protected, without having to deserve it
　　3. the right to feel valuable, even if you came into the world with nothing
　　4. the right to be listened to without having to be interesting
　　5. the right to be read a bedtime story, without having to pete with the evening news
　　6. the right to an education without having to dodge bullets at schools
　　7. the right to be thought of as adorable amp。ndash。 (even if you have a face that only a mother could love).
　　friends, the foundation of all human knowledge, the beginning of human consciousness, must be that each and every one of us is an object of love. before you know if you have red hair or brown, before you know if you are black or white, before you know of what religion you are a part, you have to know that you are loved.
　　about twelve years ago, when i was just about to start my bad tour, a little boy came with his parents to visit me at home in california. he was dying of cancer and he told me how much he loved my music and me. his parents told me that he wasnamp。39。t going to live, that any day he could just go, and i said to him: amp。quot。look, i am going to be ing to your town in kansas to open my tour in three months. i want you to e to the show. i am going to give you this jacket that i wore in one of my videos.amp。quot。 his eyes lit up and he said: amp。quot。you are gonna give it to me?amp。quot。 i said amp。quot。yeah, but you have to promise that you will wear it to the show.amp。quot。 i was trying to make him hold on. i said: amp。quot。when you e to the show i want to see you in this jacket and in this gloveamp。quot。 and i gave him one of my rhinestone gloves amp。ndash。 and i never usually give the rhinestone gloves away. and he was just in heaven.
　　but maybe he was too close to heaven, because when i came to his town, he had already died, and they had buried him in the glove and jacket. he was just 10 years old. god knows, i know, that he tried his best to hold on. but at least when he died, he knew that he was loved, not only by his parents, but even by me, a near stranger, i also loved him. and with all of that love he knew that he didnamp。39。t e into this world alone, and he certainly didnamp。39。t leave it alone.
　　if you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can he dealt with. a professor may degrade you, but you will not feel degraded, a boss may crush you, but you will not be crushed, a corporate gladiator might vanquish you, but you will still triumph. how could any of them truly prevail in pulling you down? for you know that you are an object worthy of love. the rest is just packaging.
　　but if you donamp。39。t have that memory of being loved, you are condemned to search the world for something to fill you up. but no matter how much money you make or how famous you bee, you will still fell empty. what you are really searching for is unconditional love, unqualified acceptance. and that was the one thing that was denied to you at birth.
　　friends, let me paint a picture for you. here is a typical day in america amp。ndash。 six youths under the age of 20 will mit suicide, 12 children under the age of 20 will die from firearms amp。ndash。 remember this is a day, not a year amp。ndash。 399 kids will be arrested for drug abuse, 1,352 babies will be born to teen mothers. this is happening in one of the richest, most developed countries in the history of the world.
　　yes, in my country there is an epidemic of violence that parallels no other industrialized nation. these are the ways young people in america express their hurt and their anger. but donamp。39。t think that there is not the same pain and anguish among their counterparts in the united kingdom. studies in this country show that every single hour, three teenagers in the uk inflict harm upon themselves, often by cutting or burning their bodies or taking an overdose. this is how they have chosen to cope with the pain of neglect and emotional agony.
　　in britain, as many as 20% of families will only sit down and have dinner together once a year. once a year! and what about the timehonored tradition of reading your kid a bedtime story? research from the 1980s showed that children who are read to, had far greater literacy and significant