Everything adults do impacts the youngest and most vulnerable citizens among us in profound ways.
Like the canary in the coal mine and vulnerable aquatic animals, children feel the brunt of our selfishness, apathy, and bad behaviors. As a society, we are not child friendly in America.
I am a CASA volunteer in child protection serving a fraction of the 3 million children reported to child protection services each year – read this blog to see how seriously child unfriendly a nation we are.
Because Americans demand that almost every kind of pistol & deadly assault weapon be made available with almost no family or background check, in any quantity, and thousands of rounds of unaccountable ammunition, pretty much guarantees that children will kill themselves and be killed by others as a statistical absolute of the growing carnage that defines our nation.
At the same time, Americans turn their back on more and more poor children every year (we now have the highest child poverty rate in the industrialized world) with inadequate housing, day care, crisis nurseries, nutrition, health care, and especially, mental health care.
Three trillion dollars in the projected next 3 year base cost of war & military in this nation (59 cents out of every tax dollar) should make America the safest nation in the world. It does not.
Not only does war destroy our youth, but the Untited States has more crime, more violence, and more dysfunctional and incarcerated people than any other industrialized nation in the world*.
At the same time, we continue to decline signing the International Rights of the Child Treaty because we refuse to quit sending children as young as twelve to military schools (the only nation in the world besides Somalia and Sudan to not sign).
Senior citizens (of which I am one) receive six times more government help than poor children. We should feel bad about this and work openly to change it.
Children have no voice in this society. They certainly have no lobby the likes of AARP, the NRA, the Insurance industry (keeping mental health services from children).
Dr Bruce Perry of the Academy Against Violence and Abuse states that 25% of Americans will be special needs people by the end of the next generation (he said this five years ago) and he has done the work to prove it.
There is no upside to degrading the lives of our youngest citizens. The cost of not helping them to lead normal lives becomes horrific in societal degradation and economic un-sustainability.
Sustainability means that our third graders can read, go on to high school and graduate and then go on to become contributing members of our society. That’s not happening now. We should be concerned. We should do something.
Like my mom said 50 years ago, “do something, even if it’s wrong” , meaning, try something, even it it fails, at least you are trying.
or,
Like Pliny the elder said 2500 years ago, “what we do to our children, they will do to society”, and we want that to be a good thing (not crime, incarceration, & soldering).
~ Uncorked ~
Join me on Thursday, January 10, 2013 from 6 – 9:30 pm to celebrate, and help continue, the good work of CASA Minnesota! Featuring wine tasting, cheese and desserts, and a fabulous silent auction. More details about the event can be found here: Uncorked Invitation Please Contact us if you have items for our silent auction.
RSVP by December 31st by printing the Uncorked RSVP card and mailing it to: CASA Minnesota, P.O. Box 17358, Minneapolis MN 55417. Or register online via Paypal using the links below:
Ticket for a guardian ad-Litem (discounted)
If you would like to know more about the guardian ad-Litem program that CASAMN supports, click on; www.CASAMN.org