On Christmas Day, a few children in our area were apparently killed. It is heartbreaking to hear of a child murdered on any day, but especially painful to hear this news on a day that is typically a celebration of childhood.
How do we protect children from such heinous crimes?
As a teacher of young children who is a news junkie too, I know that we don't do enough for families or children in the United States. Our current national leadership, in many ways, is focused on spewing hate as the Trumpian team works to elevate their wealth and power by increasing the wealth of a few in the country while leaving the integral services and priorities of good family life and care for children behind. This sets the stage for child endangerment today and into the future.
As they tear children from their parents at the border, put children in cages, deny proper medical care for immigrants, ignore the pressures all Americans face when it comes to minimum wages, do nothing with regard to the high costs of child care, lack of affordable housing, and environmental threats, families struggle to care well for their children.
How can we better help families in crisis? How can we better protect the lives of children?
First, we must support child care agencies with better funding and staffing. We can't expect social service workers, teachers, and medical professionals to be superhuman--to care well for children takes dedicated time and effort, and that time and effort requires that people have manageable caseloads, work expectations, and appropriate environments to do the work necessary.
We also have to lighten the load for families by making sure that they have access to affordable health care, quality schools, day care centers, nutritious food, clean environments, fair pay and work conditions, and needed social services. When families are struggling in any one of those areas, children often pay the price. Too many leaders don't demonstrate any care or concern for families or communities, thus they do not support the good work possible in health care centers, day care centers, schools, or medical organizations. We can do better!
In our own lives, we can do better too. I talked to my son about the terrible child-murders in our area, and said that raising children is very stressful at times, and you have to have a plan for the most stressful moments--you have to know who you will call and how you will handle it when times are rough. I wonder if the murderers in these situations were people so desperate and isolated that they didn't know what to do or who to call for help. So many families are distanced from extended family and so many work places do not make time to help employees deal with all the work they are doing. Perhaps these people who killed young children didn't have the help they needed to parent well, live a balanced life, or get the help they needed. One aspect of American culture I don't like is that too many neighborhoods and communities lack a sense of warmth and togetherness, and this, in my opinion, is due to the fact that people are working so many hours that there is little time to come together as a community to know and help one another. I also think that the way communities have been orchestrated and designed has led to greater isolation than togetherness--this is something I believe that communities can work at to make change in effective ways beginning with the organizations that do bring people together and building out from there.
Similar to when there was a senseless murder in our own smaller community, I wish I could have been there to help those people before they desperately murdered innocent children. I wish I could have been there to help them turn away from desperation and get the help they needed--help that allowed them to see the reality of the situation and the fact that things could get better. They didn't have to stay stuck with the torment they felt. I think many of us have been at those points of desperation in life, but thanks to close connections, good consult, places to turn, we were able to turn away from the desperation to make a plan for the problems we faced at the time.
I want our country to put children first with every decision we make. I feel that the whole world will be a better place if children our the first priority. To make decisions with the perspective of what is right for children, is to make decisions that serve all people well. We can do this. This is one reason why I support Elizabeth Warren for President of the United States--I feel that she has the intelligence, compassion, experience, energy, and collaborative skill to make that happen. Do you agree?
How do we protect children from such heinous crimes?
As a teacher of young children who is a news junkie too, I know that we don't do enough for families or children in the United States. Our current national leadership, in many ways, is focused on spewing hate as the Trumpian team works to elevate their wealth and power by increasing the wealth of a few in the country while leaving the integral services and priorities of good family life and care for children behind. This sets the stage for child endangerment today and into the future.
As they tear children from their parents at the border, put children in cages, deny proper medical care for immigrants, ignore the pressures all Americans face when it comes to minimum wages, do nothing with regard to the high costs of child care, lack of affordable housing, and environmental threats, families struggle to care well for their children.
How can we better help families in crisis? How can we better protect the lives of children?
First, we must support child care agencies with better funding and staffing. We can't expect social service workers, teachers, and medical professionals to be superhuman--to care well for children takes dedicated time and effort, and that time and effort requires that people have manageable caseloads, work expectations, and appropriate environments to do the work necessary.
We also have to lighten the load for families by making sure that they have access to affordable health care, quality schools, day care centers, nutritious food, clean environments, fair pay and work conditions, and needed social services. When families are struggling in any one of those areas, children often pay the price. Too many leaders don't demonstrate any care or concern for families or communities, thus they do not support the good work possible in health care centers, day care centers, schools, or medical organizations. We can do better!
In our own lives, we can do better too. I talked to my son about the terrible child-murders in our area, and said that raising children is very stressful at times, and you have to have a plan for the most stressful moments--you have to know who you will call and how you will handle it when times are rough. I wonder if the murderers in these situations were people so desperate and isolated that they didn't know what to do or who to call for help. So many families are distanced from extended family and so many work places do not make time to help employees deal with all the work they are doing. Perhaps these people who killed young children didn't have the help they needed to parent well, live a balanced life, or get the help they needed. One aspect of American culture I don't like is that too many neighborhoods and communities lack a sense of warmth and togetherness, and this, in my opinion, is due to the fact that people are working so many hours that there is little time to come together as a community to know and help one another. I also think that the way communities have been orchestrated and designed has led to greater isolation than togetherness--this is something I believe that communities can work at to make change in effective ways beginning with the organizations that do bring people together and building out from there.
Similar to when there was a senseless murder in our own smaller community, I wish I could have been there to help those people before they desperately murdered innocent children. I wish I could have been there to help them turn away from desperation and get the help they needed--help that allowed them to see the reality of the situation and the fact that things could get better. They didn't have to stay stuck with the torment they felt. I think many of us have been at those points of desperation in life, but thanks to close connections, good consult, places to turn, we were able to turn away from the desperation to make a plan for the problems we faced at the time.
I want our country to put children first with every decision we make. I feel that the whole world will be a better place if children our the first priority. To make decisions with the perspective of what is right for children, is to make decisions that serve all people well. We can do this. This is one reason why I support Elizabeth Warren for President of the United States--I feel that she has the intelligence, compassion, experience, energy, and collaborative skill to make that happen. Do you agree?