February 25. 2009
Page A4
O pinion
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Nobody Raises a Child Alone
Helping adults
become better parents
m M arian W right E dei . man
P a re n tin g o ffe rs the m o st
w onderful and daunting ch a l
lenges in the world. Parents are
their children's m ost important
teachers and m entors, and they
bear primary responsibility for nurturing their
sons and daughters w hile keeping them sate.
Yet parenting is one o f the most underval
ued and least prepared-for roles in America. Vir
tually everyone who has children wants to be a
good parent, but som e do not know how to do
that, and many lack the support o f ex
tended family or com m unity resources.
So instead o f judging or assigning blame
when parents com e up short in provid
ing care and protection to their children,
we should recognize that what many par
ents need is help.
Nobody raises a child alone and many
parents need support from a spouse, par
ent, sibling, friend or neighbor. T hat sup
port may com e in the form o f respite for
an hour or tw o o f alone tim e once a week
or the ability to attend church while a
friend sits with their children.
Parents, grandparents or other caregivers of
children or teenagers can benefit from support
groups organized by faith-based or other com
munity organizations where they can find help
for coping with the challenging behaviors o f
their children or extra support to address their
children's special needs.
M any parents are plagued by poverty or
unem ploym ent that can make it particularly dif
ficult for them to balance parenting with jo b
searches or work. Parents may worry about the
im pact on their children o f an im pending job
lay-off or eviction and at some point vent their
frustration on a child. Stress grows as parents
becom e more isolated.
Help for many fam ilies can com e through
home visiting program s that engage parents and
keep them from being isolated. Home visitors
work with parents to understand and address
th e ir ch ild ren 's d ev elo p m en tal n eed s w hile
strengthening their parenting skills.
Some hom e visiting program s offer a variety
o f supports to fam ilies with differing needs, but
m ost seek to help parents beginning right after
childbirth when they are especially receptive to
advice and assistance.
The N urse-Fam ily Partnership, a successful
hom e visiting program , has the longest track
the hospital and follow ing up with visits, to
som e parents and children through age five.
The Parents as Teachers program offers home
visiting to parents with new borns through the
schools.
R e c o g n i z in g th a t p a r e n ts a re th e ir
ch ild ren 's best first teachers, fam ilies receive
ch ild d ev e lo p m e n t in stru ctio n and paren tin g
su p p o rt in th e ir hom es from a train ed parent
e d u c ato r fo r the c h ild 's first th ree years, and
in som e lo catio n s, until the ch ild en ters k in
d erg a rte n .
All o f these hom e visiting m odels have been
h ighly effec tiv e in stren g th en in g paren tin g
skills, promoting healthy child development, and
addressing child abuse and neglect.
For parents facing special challenges,
such as substance abuse, co m p reh en
sive fam ily-based treatm ent brings par
ents and their young children together
so that attention can be given to the par
e n t-c h ild rela tio n sh ip as* w ell as the
ch ild 's developm ent. T hese program s
also help parents prepare a recovery plan
as they transition back into their com
munities.
Support for fam ilies in need through
c o m m u n ity - b a s e d
o r g a n iz a tio n s ,
schools or public agencies m ust fully
engage parents, other family m em bers and the
children and build on the strengths o f all of
Instead o f judging or assigning
blame when parents come up
short in providing care and
protection to their children, we
should recognize that what many
parents need is help.
record. It engages young w om en during preg
nancy, focusing on im proving the health, w ell
being and self-sufficiency o f low -incom e, first
time parents - many of them young single m oth
ers - and stays with them through the child's
second birthday.
The nurses w ork with m others on health-re
lated behaviors during pregnancy such as ciga
rette sm oking, drinking and drug abuse, and
educate them about the physical and em otional
needs o f their children.
The Healthy Families home visiting programs
target m others at risk, connecting with them at
Unwelcome in Oregon
settlers signed a petition to allow
the free slaves entry. But after tw o
years the O regon Territorial L eg
islature agreed to allow "only" Mr.
Bush entry.
I b e lie v e th is is th e re a so n
W ash in g to n S tate h as a la rg e r
population o f A frican A m ericans
than Oregon.
Future black immigrants avoided
entry into Oregon and went south
into California or north avoiding
Oregon since land ownership was
forbidden and laws allowed severe
punishm ent before exile.
Thomas H. O'Keefe
North Portland
C o n fu sio n reigns reg ard in g the
switch to all-digital broadcasting, es
pecially since Congress acted recently
to move the conversion deadline from
Feb. 17 to June 12. Among peoples'
big concerns is the fear they'll lose free
television.
Let me assure you that O PB ’s sig
nal has been and will continue to be
free for all over-the-air viewers. In fact,
OPB offers three free channels - OPB,
OPB HD and OPB PLUS - which
m eans view ers have greater choice
when it com es to the best o f news and
public affairs, lifestyle, environment
and entertainment programming.
Add to this the superior picture and
sound quality of over-the-air reception
and viewers not only save money and
the time spent scanning hundreds of
Offense Editorial Cartoon
The editorial cartoon published last week in
the N ew York Post was insensitive and offen
sive.
Marian Wright Edelman is president o f the
Children's Defense Fund.
Won’t Lose Free TV
^Letters to the (Scditor
As we celebrate Black History
M onth we must ask ourselves why
does O regon have such a white
population. This is my theory:
In 1844, an "a ll b la c k "
w agontrain o f free slaves cam e to
the Oregon Territory to start a new
life.
The w agonmaster was George
Washington Bush. His wagontrain,
w hich endeared many hardships
along the Oregon Trail, was halted
at T he D alles w here they w ere
forced under the threat o f bodily
harm to cross the Columbia River
into what is now Washington State.
One hundred and thirteen white
them.
H elping adults becom e b etter parents re
duces child abuse and neglect and w orks to
prevent crim e and delinquency w hen children's
special needs are caught early.
U ltim ately, this type o f intervention benefits
children and all o f us over the long term by
helping to make the futures o f those served more
productive and by lowering public expenditures.
C o m p arin g P resid en t O bam a and his e f
fort to rev iv e th e eco n o m y in a m an n er that
d ep icts v io le n ce and racist in feren ces is u n
channels, but enhance the time they
do spend watching television as well.
Until June 12, OPB will continue to
operate both its analog and digital sig
nals. Viewers who have already pre
pared for the digital switch by install
ing a small, inexpensive digital con
verter box for their conventional ana
log TVs, or viewers who have new digi
tal TVs, can start watching OPB's three
free channels today.
OPB is here to help all viewers to
prepare now for the switch. If you have
questions about how to receive digital
OPB, our digital experts can help. Call
us weekdays at 800.241.8123, e-mail us
at membercenter@ opb.org or find out
more online at opb.org/digital.
Steve Bass, OPB president and
chief executive officer.
ac ce p ta b le.
Ignorance, like this, is still prevalent and makes
the work o f the N ational Urban League even
m ore relevant in the 21st century.
Marc H. Mortal, National Urban league
president and chief executive officer.
Wrong time to
dismantle law
by J udge
G reg M athis
A key se c tio n o f the
Voting Rights Act, w hich
has been show n to reduce
discriminatory voting prac
tices, could be dism antled
if the U.S. Suprem e Court
sides with city officials in Austin, Texas.
The small m unicipality has challenged
the law ’s constitutionality, arguing it is no
longer needed.
W hile Am erica has com e far in the last
40 plus years, voting irregularities still ex
ist and we m ust urge the C ourt to rule in
favor o f the Act.
Section 5 o f the Voting Rights Act re
quires states, with a long history o f fla
grant discrim inatory practices, to clear any
changes it m akes to the electoral process
with the U.S. Justice Departm ent.
N ine states, most o f them southern, and
several counties, cities and sm aller politi
cal locales are covered under the Act. The
A ustin m unicipality argues that the A ct is
unconstitutional because it infringes on
state's rig h ts and o v er ex ten d s federal
power.
F u rth e rm o re , it ag u es th a t b ec au se
A m erica elected Barack O bam a as presi
dent, the country is dram atically different
from the America that existed when the Act
was passed in 1965, implying that the coun
try has m oved beyond its race issues.
We m ust not forget that it has not even
been a decade since the 2000 Florida vot
ing scandal, where A frican A m ericans and
poor people w ere disenfranchised. Four
years later, in Ohio, there was a sim ilar de
bacle.
In both instances, voters lost faith in
the system and George W. Bush was vic
torious. In 2(X)6, before renew ing the A ct,
Congress held 22 hearings and determ ined
there was enough evidence to support ex
tending the law.
The Voting Rights A ct w as passed to
counter, and put an end to state practices
like poll taxes and literacy tests, used to
prevent blacks from voting. W hile those
specific barriers may no longer exist, voter
discrim ination and intim idation do.
We all long for a 'post racial' A m erica
but those o f us w ho have been burned
too many tim es are cautious.
Let's w ait another decade and continue
to m onitor voting practices before we b e
gin dism antling the Act. America may have
changed but she is far from perfect.
Judge Greg Mathis is vice president o f
Rainbow PUSH and a board member o f
the Southern Christian Leadership Con
ference.
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