That's the US News headline for Valentine's Day. The article explained:
"The U.S. was last among the 21 nations for health and safety, measured by rates of infant mortality, low birth weight, immunization, and deaths from accidents and injuries.
Meanwhile, Britain was last in family and peer relationships ranking, which measured such things as the rate of single-parent families and whether families ate the main meal of the day together more than once a week. It was also last in behaviors and risks, which considered factors such as the percentage of children who ate breakfast, were overweight, used drugs or alcohol or were sexually active."
At a time when the lawmakers in our capital, and pundits across the nation, are pondering questions which include:
Should we bring back our soldiers from a failed war?
Should we provide universal healthcare for our citizens?
Should we ensure that Social Security is, well, secure?
Should we invest more in education?
Should we allow illegal immigrants many of the rights of legal residents?
Should we regulate corporations and individuals to enforce environmental responsibility?
Should we end tax-cuts for the rich and return to Clinton-era tax levels?
We get this NEWS--America is not caring for its children. Isn't the connection obvious? Isn't it clear that every single thing we do, from healthcare to environmental regulations, affect our children?
Should we bring back our soldiers from a failed war?
When parents are deployed, redeployed, maimed, or killed , children pay the biggest price. They lose a parent, sibling, caretaker. Even if Mom comes back, if she is suffering from PTSD or disabled, her child's quality of life is permanently altered. The same is true when Dad comes back a little less himself than before the war. I know this is the price of war. I admire the soldiers willing to fight to protect my rights. That is precisely why it is outrageous that their gifts and sacrifices are being squandered in Iraq. It's just not worth it.
Should we provide universal healthcare for our citizens?
When parents can't pay for preventative healthcare, for themselves or their children, it's children that suffer. It is far worse for a child to end up in the ER, than to get the flu shot. When parents are sick, they have less energy to be good parents. We save money by privatizing healthcare, but the ones who pay are children. They will in turn, grow up to be less healthy, happy, and productive adults than children who did have access to regular medical care.
Should we ensure that Social Security is, well, secure?
Isn't Social Security a problem for the elderly? Not if you look around. When the elderly can't take care of themselves, there are a few things that can happen:
1. They end up on the streets. This is the worst case.
2. Their grown children take care of them.
(3. Right now, social services can step in and help, but this requires continued funding.)
Option 2 might be okay if the grown children have enough money, help, and time to care for a parent and their own children. Picture a middle-aged couple with ailing parents, if they have to pay for mom and dad to be in a nursing home, that leaves less money for their kids' college, school, etc. If mom and dad live with them, that is a drain of time from the kids too.
When grandparents live in the same house as their grandkids it can be an amazing experience. Having my grandma live with us was a wonderful part of my childhood. However, she was very healthy and I had a large family support system. Many Americans are in not in such an ideal situation. Even my grandma relied on Social Security to help pay some of her personal expenses, such as medications.
When we cut back on social security and other services for the elderly, it impacts their entire family.
Should we invest more in education?
Should we allow illegal immigrants many of the rights of legal residents?
Education AND granting rights to illegal immigrants are linked issues. In my experience teaching community college I have seen some important things:
A large number of students graduate high school without the basic skills needed to understand the information they will encounter at work, in the world, and at home. It's not just their vocabularies that are limited, but their sense of empowerment and motivation. The schools have not just failed to inspire them to learn, they have taught these students that learning does not matter because they do not matter. This is the worst type of trap.
Also, MANY talented and motivated students in California are paralyzed at the community college level (or lower) by the fact that they cannot work legally in the U.S., even if they do complete their education. Imagine how futile it must feel to study and work to pay tuition, knowing full well that your work will mean nothing if or when you are deported.
Should we regulate corporations and individuals to enforce environmental responsibility?
One of the things that made teaching in Southgate difficult was the noxious air from the freeways and god-only-knows-what-kind of factories. When children breathe dirty air, drink filthy water, live in roach-infested public housing, and play in graveled lots, they are unable to experience the joy we typically associate with childhood. They miss out on rolling in the grass, or biking along a stream, or even just breathing easily (without asthma-meds). Our health affects our quality of life. This is just as true for children. How can they concentrate when they have headaches from the fumes, or are constipated from the trashy fast-food they ate?Hasn't the mind-body connection been established by now?
Should we end tax-cuts for the rich and return to Clinton-era tax levels?
Tax cuts--HA! The tax burden has shifted to the middle-class. Those of us who are middle-class can't afford nannies and vacations in the Hamptons. When we are struggling, we work overtime, trim our grocery budget, and cancel our family vacation. Maybe when the President is picturing his rich friends smiling about the tax cuts, he should picture the millions of average-income kids sitting at home alone watching TV while mom and dad work overtime. They are truly being left behind.
Let's talk politics; let's examine the issues that affect families and kids. The personal is political. When we forget that, we forget what government is really for--to serve the people, even the ones who aren't old enough to vote.
1 comment:
Elsie, I'm so glad you're blogging. You have a lot of good things to say outside of your official publications, and this is a good way to get them out to the rest of us.
Just a quick note about what you said relating to Universal Healthcare:
- No matter what way you cut it, we are losing money through privatized health insurance. If you took all the money we're spending on health care right now, and funneled it through a public system, you could cover everyone. EVERYONE, old, young, working, unemployed, rich, poor, you name it, even illegal immigrants. All without spending an extra dollar. How? By eliminating health insurance companies that deny care, interfere with doctor-patient care, cherry pick the healthy, abandon the not-so-healthy, spend tons lobbying our politicians or financing their campaigns so that they'll pass insurance company-friendly legislation, make exorbitant profits and pay their executives hundreds of millions. All the while, our system sucks, focusing on treating instead of preventing illness, and even for this shoddy acute-illness oriented inefficient care, very few of us have access even to that, and for the most part, the ones who need it most don't have access. But guess what, we pay for the uninsured to be treated anyway, because they end up in emergency rooms, and by law, they must be stabilized before being discharged. If they can't pay, guess who pays for them? Taxpayers! But if taxpayers had payed to prevent their illness in the first place, it would be cheaper! That's why hospitals in low-income areas are shutting down all over the country. They're just not profitable. It's just really sad.
Ok, I went on for too long. If you're still interested, check out Physicians for a National Health Program.
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