I hear a great deal of screaming about the right to life of a group of cells and how marriage rights for gays will end the world.
"Think of the children", you cry, yet, I see little little outrage nor positive suggestions on how to reduce child abuse. The US leads the industrialized world in abusing its children, do I hear a USA USA and seven pledges of allegiance?
Some low lights
*More than five children die every day as a result of child abuse.2
Approximately 80% of children that die from abuse are under the age of 4
It is estimated that between 50-60% of child fatalities due to maltreatment are not recorded as such on death certificates
Children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit violent crime.
And don't hop on your holier than thou horse just yet
Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.
Yeah but, but its the evil governments fault
Texas prides itself in being a low tax, low service state. Its per capita income places it in the middle of the states, while its total tax burden - its willingness to tax itself - is near the bottom.
Gosh must be good, right?
Vermont, in contrast, is at the other extreme. It is a high-tax, high-service state.
Evil socialism is bad, bad bad....right?
In looking at key indicators of well-being, children from Texas are twice as likely to drop out of high school as children from Vermont. They are four times more likely to be uninsured, four times more likely to be incarcerated, and nearly twice as likely to die from abuse and neglect.
Ah but that's America, you know, other countries must be worse.
The child maltreatment death rate in the US is triple Canada's and 11 times that of Italy. Millions of children are reported as abused and neglected every year. Why is that?
I bet you haven't got a clue why, now do you?
Part of the answer is that teen pregnancy, high-school dropout, violent crime, imprisonment, and poverty - factors associated with abuse and neglect - are generally much higher in the US.
Further, other rich nations have social policies that provide child care, universal health insurance, pre-school, parental leave and visiting nurses to virtually all in need.
So if you are really serious about the safety of children and believe that life is precious how about doing something positive?
Ensuring that every family has access to medical care so that signs of child abuse can be detected earlier.
Funding social services and child care services to help reduce neglect.
How about fighting for children's rights rather than screaming about the results of decades of neglect. How about fighting to have the social services available to reduce the problem?
So you want to reduce abortion? How about treating the roots of unwanted pregnancies?
You want a cause and a meaning to your lives?
How about protecting and assisting the living?