9486 in the collection
Edelman: The nation’s priorities are wrong
We don't have a money problem, we have a values problem.
--Marian Wright Edelman
staff
America has its priorities wrong, and unless we do something about it, many of our children will grow up to lead diminished -- or even tragic -- lives. And the nation will suffer.
That was the message Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, shared with school leaders at the NSBA Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., Feb. 2.
"We're so rich, and we love being No. 1, and we just about are in everything except in taking care of our children," she said. "We're first in GNP, millionaires and billionaires, and health technology, but we happen [among industrialized nations] somehow to be . . . 24th in childhood poverty, 25th in child mortality, and last in protecting our children from gun violence."
One of the most heart-breaking failures is the lack of adequate health care for children, Edelman said.
Particularly disappointing was the recent failure of Congress to override President Bush’s veto of legislation to expand the state children’s health insurance program (SCHIP). She said the estimated cost of the measure -- $70 billion to provide health coverage to the nation’s 7.5 million uninsured children -- is less than what is spent in one year on the war in Iraq.
What's more, the nation squanders immense health care costs anyway when minor health problems among uninsured children escalate, she said. She told the story of one Maryland child who died from complications related to an easy-to-treat tooth abscess -- after the local hospital spent $264,000 trying to save him.
Edelman also expressed concerns about our culture's glorification of violence, which coupled with the social ills surrounding poverty, has created a "cradle-to-prison pipeline" for too many young people.
"What worries me to death is that a black boy born in 2001 has a one-in-three chance of going to prison in his lifetime," she said. "This is a catastrophe for the nation and a tragedy for these families."
At the heart of the problem is our society's "pervasive spiritual poverty [and] the excessive materialism that is corroding our individual and collective souls," Edelman said. "Something is out of balance in our nation when 1.7 million families live on less income than one CEO . . . when the average CEO of a large company makes more money in a day than the average worker makes in a year."
"We don't have a money problem, we have a values problem," she said."We've got to get out of our comfort zones and build a movement to save our children and our souls."
— staff
School Board News
2008-03-01
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
[1] 2 3 4 5 6 Next >> Last >>
