The next Congress must invest in children. He doesn’t care whether you are liberal or conservative. She doesn’t care whether help comes from the federal, state or city government – or from somewhere else. They only hope it comes.

They are two of the nearly 16 million kids living in poverty in this country, two of the almost 10 percent of southeastern Pennsylvania’s children who are poor, two of the more than 25 percent of Philadelphia’s kids who are waiting for the American dream to move them closer to their reality.

The current reality of their lives is one where failure visits often: in school, in the neighborhood, in the empty kitchen cabinets, in the house. The long-term effects of poverty are up close and personal for them: increased anger, neglect, poor health, risk-taking, violence and joblessness. The future doesn’t look much better for them – or for us – unless we all work together to change these trends.

We can do this if we decide it’s important enough.

Are our kids – all of them – important enough? Is our community’s future important enough? Recent studies show the United States has fallen far below most other industrialized nations in almost every child well-being indicator. We can and must do better.

As the 112th Congress prepares to take the oath of office on Jan. 3, will they take seriously the serious condition of the children of the country? Or will they listen to the siren song of more cuts that in the end will only make us all bleed? It is time to invest in what matters, the children and families of the country.

Shelly Yanoff, Executive Director, Public Citizens for Children and Youth Philadelphia

Philadelphia Daily News – December 27, 2010 – Đọc bài báo trực tuyến