Gene's Blog

Referendums and children

Well, the elections have come and gone, and, it seems for the most part, the people have decided to make up for what the penuriousness of legislatures past has caused – the dire cuts in programs and services that children need to become well-rounded citizens. Here in my district, the two most important pieces passed, but such frivolities as reducing activity fees, which as I pointed out in an earlier post, are already the highest in the seven county greater metropolitan area, did not, pricing poor families out of athletics and other extra-curricular opportunities. The pools will not be reopened, more kids are going to have to walk up to two miles to their schools, and upgrading the technology labs so that our kids can be trained on the cutting edge equipment they will need to use in their work lives failed as well. But the schools will stay open. When, I wonder still, will the legislature honor its obligation to provide quality educational opportunities to all of Minnesota’s children? It may be a while.

Things are still tight for school districts but I saw something in todays paper while on the bus that made me realize that although things are hard here for kids, our kids are still far better off than children unfortunate enough to have been born in other parts of the world. I read an article about a man, Dr. David Parker, who is concentrating his efforts on children elsewhere and in the reading picked up some astonishing, disheartening information. He spends his vacations traveling the world documenting photographically the plight of the world’s children, and in my view, all children are our children, how can it possibly be otherwise? He has taken pictures of child soldiers in Sierra Leone, children working in the Indian brick kilns, he tried to get pictures of the child prostitutes in Bangkok but was unable as apparently there had been some negative publicity shortly before his visit, I can’t imagine why, and he found those doors locked to him. We are complicit in this activity, Americans participate on their “vacations” in the “pleasures” of using children as sexual objects. More Americans than anyone suspects or would believe.

He says that in the late 70’s it was estimated that about 80 million children were involved in child labor and back then people predicted that would be halved by the year 2000. Instead it has grown, today the number is 320 million children working, breaking coal, picking cotton, working in brick factories, endless hours under horrid conditions. He says it is a larger issue than simply working them half to death. Those children are not being educated, especially young girls who he says will suffer greatly. Without education to prepare them for life, they will not know that they don’t need to have nine children, or be taught how to have a healthy family. Education empowers people and these children have no voice and are essentially lost to the mainstream, to the rest of the world. What future waits them?

He recommends, as a first step, that companies who do business overseas, institute and enforce policies prohibiting their employees from participating, in any way, in the trafficking of women and children for sex, no second chances, a violation of that policy and they are sent packing. I’d rather recommend jail, but getting them the hell away from those kids IS the first priority. Their predation is likelier to be found out here. I’d go further than this. I would like to see the United States engage the United Nations in an effort to eradicate human trafficking and make and enforce child labor laws, buy NOTHING from any country that uses its children so badly. If we need to lead the world, could we do it in some way OTHER than in arms exports and wars of aggression? Could we do it by NOT supporting countries who do not enact and enforce laws that guarantee basic rights to children? We need statespeople and what we have are actors. People who promise everything and deliver nothing. People who look pretty on the campaign trail and as evil as evil can be in the back rooms where deals are cut and children and the poor sold out for more tax cuts that heap more money on already unspendable, in anyone’s lifetime, piles of cash. Could we, for a change, lead in something other than bellicose talk? That is where I’d like to see us go and what I’m going to talk about this weekend as I’ve near completed my updating and reading. 2008 MUST be the year that marks a real change in America, and Americans. I hope we learn a few things this next campaign season and come up a bit out of the morass of death-dealing we have sunk into. I hope we start moving toward the light that we can be should we put our minds to it. We need a global consciousness-raising and I think it must start here. So I plan to blog about it a lot. And support candidates who can persuade me they are about more than money, that they are about bettering the lives of people. They ARE out there. Let’s help them take control of our countries infrastructure and political apparatus. Do something right for the first time in a long time. 911 was a great national tragedy, but it was not the worst thing that ever happened, maybe HERE it was, but worse things are happening around the planet every day. And we have done very little right since that horrid day. Bush has squandered all the goodwill freely given us in the aftermath of that day, it is time to start making amends. It is time to become a beacon of hope and back our flowery words up with loving action. Give food, medicine and books to others, give of our time and talents, stop exporting fear and death, start exporting love and healing. We CAN. It is my prayer that we DO. much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene