CHILDREN SHOULD BE POLITICAL PRIORITY!!

I write instead of video because if I was talking everyone hearing me would hear anger in my voice and would not hear the words I was saying. However, in trying to keep people from hearing the anger I also tend to water down the message and not upset anyone. Right now I want people know that I am angry, I am saddened, I am confused, the more I learn the more angry I get.

We have over 400,000 children in foster care in the United States. They range in age from infants to 18 years old (in most states). They are wards of the state and the quality of care for them vary state to state. Children enter foster care because they have been abused, neglected, or abandoned by their parents or guardians. All of these children have been betrayed by the adults in their lives. The people who were supposed to be loving them, caring for them and teaching them have taught them to be afraid, to not trust and that they are not worth anything. A lot of these kids end up having behavioral issues such as trying to commit suicide, fighting or inappropriate sexual activity which gets them put into a residential behavior facility. The statistics are not good for these kids, some make it through the “system” and break the cycle to move beyond to see something of the life many of us take for granted. I am talking about a life where you have enough to eat, aren’t afraid of being attacked, have electricity, water and heat. In addition to the ones in state custody you around 700,000 kids who have slipped through the cracks and live on the streets fending for themselves.

Until we as a society decide that children — ALL CHILDREN are more important than keeping the economy open, fixing the roads, building walls, and bailing out Wall street we are going to continue down this path of destruction!!

When we start addressing the issues that face our children today we start fixing a lot of the problems facing our society. These children do not know and do not believe that anyone really cares about them. Some of the stories are incomprehensible to many of us. How can anybody treat a child that way? However many of these kids will turn around and have children of their own at a very young age because they are so desperate for someone to love them and they believe a “baby” will fill that need. And the cycle starts again! The cycle of poverty, lack of education and abuse must be stopped. Belief that a child is the property of the parent needs to go away. Children are precious gifts, they are human beings that have a right to feel safe (at home, at school and in the community), to have enough to eat, to have adequate healthcare and the right to education. People turning a blind eye to abuse of a child because it is “none of my business” need to wake up and realize that it is your business to help another human being in crisis. We have a system today that makes it almost impossible for a child born in poverty, in certain school districts to get an education and a decent paying job. Circumstances that make that worse are when the parents abuse, neglect and abandon those children.

Healthy, happy, well educated children do not grow up to commit violent crimes. Children who feel safe and cherished do not have babies just to get someone to love them. It all starts with taking care of the kids now, not cutting the budgets for education, health care, children’s divisions and social services while bailing out big businesses in the hopes they will create jobs. If we educate, heal, and strengthen our children when the are growing up we will have less need for prisons, we will spend less on health care because of drug addiction, there will be less violence. It is not an easy fix and it is not a fast fix but if we all start today putting children first when looking at politics and where OUR tax dollars go it will happen.

Most of these kids just want someone to pay attention but even though the Charitable organizations running most of the youth facilities want to do a good job the money is not there to hire and keep good people, to keep the facilities in good repair, keep them clean and provide the tools the workers need. The average pay for the workers in a youth residential facility is $12.50 hour. The health benefits are basic, the shifts have to be covered 24×7 and with a ratio of 1 adult for 4/5 kids it is tough.

I get really upset by people who say that we cannot afford to take care of these kids better. Accuse people like me of advocating for socialism. If this country can afford to spend billions of dollars on building walls, fighting wars over oil, keeping people in prison (just to name a few) then WE CAN RE-ALLOCATE funds to take care of these kids and stop a lot of the problems before they happen. We can change the way the public schools are funded – should not be personal property taxes! We can allocate more funds to Children’s Division to be able to provide the workers the support they need to help these kids heal.

This is not a Democrat vs Republican thing, there is not one party that is doing any better then the other party. Any politician who has been in office for 10, 15, 20, 30 yrs is part of the problem. Any person who turns a blind eye and says politics don’t impact them is part of the problem. And any spiritual or religious person who thinks there is anything out there more important than children need to read their teachings and pray.

Putting children first especially those that have no family is the right and moral thing to do. I have read and studied the Bible a lot so here are some of my favorites Bible verses on this subject.

I urge all to look past the politicians to what is right in front of you, and pray/meditate before you vote.