Jennifer Foster: Does every child matter? Candidates will decide

Jennifer Foster
Columnist
Published: April 14, 2008

Last week, I challenged our presidential candidates to ditch their television ads for the month of May and donate the money that would have been spent to air them to domestic violence shelters and/or child welfare programs.

I’m still waiting to hear from them.

But I don’t take rejection well, so I renew the call again this week, bolstered by another report that paints a bleak picture of child welfare in America.

Last week’s report from the Centers for Disease Control informed us that an estimated 91,000 babies a year old and younger are victims of nonfatal child abuse or neglect in a year. This week, the Every Child Matters Education Fund released a report that ranks the 50 states on 10 standards of wellbeing for children.

“Geography matters greatly when it comes to the ability of U.S. children to be healthy and survive to adulthood,” the report noted.

For example, children in the lowest-ranked 10 states are three times more likely to die before the age of 14, five times more likely to be uninsured and eight times more likely to be jailed as teens, it said.

The ECMEF exists to stop child abuse, help working families with childcare, expand preschool education and after-school programs and ensure that children receive good health care. And while we’re encouraging the candidates to do some good, the ECMEF is trying to get their attention.

The ECMEF also produced “Homeland Insecurity: Why Children Must Be a Priority in the 2008 Presidential Campaign,” a fascinating but disturbing report in which ECMEF researchers consider the effects of current policies on America’s youngest citizens.

The report also encourages voters to pose tough questions to their candidates about how — and whether — those candidates will spotlight and work to meet the needs of children during the 2008 campaign and beyond. (One example: “More than 3 million children nationwide were reported abused and neglected in 2006. What are your plans to keep all children safe from violence in their homes, schools, and communities?”)

So, come on, candidates … Give voters a welcome respite from the increasingly insufferable commercials with which you’ve browbeaten the country for months. Shelve those ads for a few weeks; give those dollars a better purpose. The lives you save could be your supporters someday.

* In other news, as anti-China protestors traded their credibility for juvenile attacks on Olympic torchbearers this week, activists called for President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing and Americans to boycott the corporate sponsors who participate.

China’s dismal human rights record demands it, they said.

There was another Summer Olympics hosted by a country with a poor human rights record — one of the worst in history. But there was no U.S. boycott of the 1936 Games in Berlin, and against the backdrop of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi propaganda declaring “Aryan racial superiority,” Alabama native Jesse Owens won four gold medals.

Since when does political change occur in any country as the result of a limited, targeted boycott by outsiders? True revolution happens from within, and it can only be sparked when the oppressed see evidence of the vibrant life beyond their borders.

The Olympic Games is a celebration of sport, of human achievement and of humanity itself, regardless of the political boundaries that divide us. It’s a reminder, every four years, of the world that could — and can — be.

* On the blog this weekend, links to all the ECMEF stuff mentioned here and where Alabama ranked: http://clarioncallerblog.blogspot.com.

Jennifer Foster is a political enthusiast who lives in Auburn and writes a column for the Opelika-Auburn News.