The War on Children

Dear Mr. President,

“The United States tolerates the highest rate of child poverty in the developed world. Yet federal expenditures on children… fell 1% last year and will fall an additional 4% this year.” (Today’s New York Times, page B1.) All wars are ultimately against the children and the War on Terror is no exception. In another article on the same page, this: “An average pay package [on Wall Street] of $362,950, a near-record.” The juxtaposition is striking. The first article states that federal government spending on child health fell by $8 billion last year and aid to states for primary education fell by another $8 billion. The second article mentions that top Wall Street executives took a hit too, like the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, whose pay package dropped from $68.5 million in 2007 to a mere $12 million last year. But Blankfein is part of the 1% of Americans who doesn’t need to worry about his children’s healthcare or education while the rest of us live with the third worst infant mortality rate among industrialized countries, the second-highest teen pregnancy rate, and a literacy rate that is in the bottom quarter of countries. Here’s another quote from that first article: “Investing in education is about as good an investment as a society can make.” But we can’t have both guns and butter so we are de-funding education at all levels while investing $1.45 trillion in the F-35 fighter jet program. Tuition, books and housing now put a college education out of reach for many—unless you’re part of the 1% or willing to take on a lifetime of debt through student loans. Teachers have been cut at all levels, classrooms are crowded, libraries closed; the dumbing-down of America is in full swing. Yesterday I wrote about the VA’s dereliction of duty to disabled vets in LA, and how we send our young men and women off to war and then toss them aside when they return home broken and sick. But today’s article on the abandonment and disregard of our children is like throwing away an entire generation. Two groups of citizens—our future, the children, and our past, disabled vets—paid lip service with platitudes but ignored while ideologues argue and accomplish nothing and Obama climbs aboard Air Force One for another fund-raiser in California or wherever the fat cats gather to donate $40- or $50,000 for a few words with the President and a plate of poached salmon. We are eating our future, Mr. President, ignoring our past, and no one lifts a finger.