Page 12
November 21, 2018
O PINION
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Children Succeeding Against the Odds
It’s time to hear and
help them
m AriAn W right e DelmAn
After two years of divisive,
hateful rhetoric from the high-
est levels of government, the
profoundly inhumane treatment
of immigrant families, and the
placing of corporate profits ahead of the
basic needs of children—the poorest age
group in America—the results of Novem-
ber’s election instilled in many that most
precious resource: hope.
Change began sweeping across our
country with the election results, bring-
ing a new, diverse set of faces into the
halls of Congress, governors’ mansions
and statehouses. With them comes a new
opportunity to improve the odds for chil-
dren.
by
We look to the two years ahead with
more hope and determination that incum-
bent and new leaders alike will
commit to common sense, fiscal-
ly responsible and compassionate
policies to help end child poverty
and inequality in America. Every
child deserves health care and food,
schools that are equitably funded,
and protection from relentless gun
violence. Every child needs a level play-
ing field and an end to the Cradle-to-Prison
Pipeline crisis.
But it is not our political leaders that
give me the most hope—it is our coura-
geous and resilient young people. I was
reminded of that yesterday as the Chil-
dren’s Defense Fund honored five Wash-
ington, D.C. metro-area high school
students at our annual Beat the Odds cel-
ebration.
The Beat the Odds program identifies
and rewards young people who have over-
come tremendous adversity, demonstrated
academic excellence and are giving back
to their communities. By providing them
college scholarships, leadership skills and
more, the program supports these astound-
ing youths—who too many people would
write off—to become the next generation
of effective servant leaders.
Because of CDF’s Beat the Odds pro-
gram hundreds of young people who have
persevered and overcome profound fami-
ly challenges, homelessness, parental in-
carceration, drug and alcohol addiction,
neglect and abuse, or gun violence have
been able to attend college and become
outstanding adults. They are doctors and
lawyers, teachers and Peace Corps volun-
teers, and responsible parents. They are
living proof that no one should ever give
up on a child.
These amazing young people have beat-
en formidable odds stacked against them,
challenging our notions of what is possi-
ble and inspiring us all to persevere despite
setbacks. But the truth is, our children
should not have to struggle so hard to beat
the odds.
You and I and our political leaders must
improve and even the odds for children, es-
pecially children of color and those living
in poverty. Across our country children are
crying out for us to protect them from hun-
ger and homelessness, abuse and neglect,
and gun violence and bigotry. It’s time to
hear and help them.
If the challenge seems too great or our
political system seems too broken, just re-
member the example set by brave young
people across our nation and commit to
fight for their future and countless others
like them.
Marian Wright Edelman is President of
the Children’s Defense Fund.
2018 Midterms: Hardly a Sigh of Relief
The issues that
won’t go away
r obert c. K oehler
How much real change
manifested itself in the 2018
midterms? How deeply does
the outcome reflect the American soul?
Apparently, about 113 million Ameri-
cans, basically half the electorate, felt com-
pelled to vote in the midterms, revved up
either by intense opposition to or support
for Donald Trump. This is a lot more than
usual for a non-presidential election, but
still fairly pathetic for “the world’s greatest
democracy.”
How much closer did we move to be-
coming a nation able and willing to focus
on the real issues that threaten the planet?
Some progressives determined to
change the game were among those who
gained office in this election, which is
something worth celebrating — but hardly
reason to heave a sigh of relief. Most of
the issues that truly matter, that require a
fundamental shift in American politics,
remain rawly unaddressed and unacknowl-
edged. They were essentially invisible in
the mainstream election coverage, which,
as usual, presented it as a horse race for the
entertainment of Spectator America, not
the creation of the future.
The issues that won’t go away include:
A. Militarism, endless war, unconscio-
nable military spending, nuclear weapons.
This was utterly off the table in the mid-
terms. As Chris Hedges pointed out, some
85 percent of Senate Dems voted for this
year’s $716 billion military spending bill,
indicating a “unity” of surrender to mili-
tary-industrialism. We no longer glorify
our wars, we ignore them. And even pro-
gressive candidates seldom declare an in-
by
tent to challenge the culture of war. Is
there any political traction whatsoev-
er for the antiwar movement? I fear
there hasn’t been for four and a half
decades — since the defeat of George
McGovern.
B. Climate change, environmental
catastrophe. This is not unrelated to
the issue of war, since the world’s militar-
ies are by far the biggest polluters. While
environmental sanity is at least something
that can be addressed politically, the ur-
gency of global warming hardly has po-
litical traction. And, as a headline on Vox
summed things up regarding the midterms:
“Fossil fuel money crushed clean energy
ballot initiatives across the country.”
self-declared socialists are getting elected.
Medicare for all and publicly funded col-
lege tuition are gaining political traction.
The 99 percent have a voice. But of course
the rich still have almost all the power; for
the most part, this means that their self-in-
terest rules.
D. Guns, violence, mass murder, a cul-
ture of violence. This issue still carves a
deep gouge across the American elector-
ate. Mass murders keep occurring. Should
we get serious about gun control or should
teachers and rabbis be armed? There is no
real dialogue across the divide. We still
live in a culture that worships violence.
Just as we will not, as a nation, consider
demilitarizing, neither will we disarm. And
Most of the issues that truly
matter, that require a fundamental
shift in American politics,
remain rawly unaddressed and
unacknowledged.
C. Poverty, inequality. “In the wealth-
iest country in the history of the world,”
writes Maria Svart, national director of
Democratic Socialists of America, “many
of us live in quiet desperation. Farmers are
committing suicide, and so are taxi drivers
in New York City. That’s why in the bat-
tle for the soul of our country, we must
win.” Capitalism is still sacrosanct and
Donald Trump, the alleged working class
populist, cuts the taxes of the rich and is,
as Hedges notes, an “embarrassing tool of
the kleptocrats.” But socialism is no lon-
ger a taboo word in American politics and
war keeps coming home.
E. Militarized police, police shootings
and racism. The antidote emerges in con-
cepts such as community policing and re-
storative justice — security that involves
connecting with and understanding others,
even those we dislike and distrust. This
transformation is taking place across the
whole planet, quietly, and for the most part
beyond the world of politics. From my
point of view, it’s one of the biggest sourc-
es of hope — it’s the cultural path beyond
the worship and glorification of violence.
F. The prison-industrial complex. The
United States has the largest prison sys-
tem in the world (and it’s becoming in-
creasingly privatized), with 2.3 million
people — mostly impoverished people of
color — behind bars. Our prison system is
a regrouping of Jim Crow America, which
can’t stand having a country without sec-
ond-class and tenth-class citizens. But
here’s some good news from this year’s
midterms: “Florida restored voting rights
to more than 1 million people with felony
records, which amounts to the biggest en-
franchisement since the Voting Rights Act
of 1965 and the women’s suffrage move-
ment,” Vox reports.
G. Immigrant scapegoating, hatred and
fear. Because our unwinnable, endless wars
can no longer serve the function of unifying
the country, Trump has turned to immigrants
— in particular, that “invading caravan” of
desperate, shoeless Central Americans — as
the Other he needs to rev his base and get
the vote out. However, the Trump adminis-
tration’s treatment of immigrants, including
the cruel separation of parents and children,
has shocked and enraged much of the coun-
try, putting the country’s long-standing pol-
icy of cruel indifference to global suffering
(and of course one of its leading creators as
well) into the national spotlight like never
before.
H. Voter suppression, gerrymandering,
hacking. Ah, democracy, a nuisance to
the powerful, a system to be gamed! If the
voting can’t be controlled, my God, Re-
publicans could lose. Witness Georgia and
North Dakota, where bureaucratic twists
deprived African-American and Native
American citizens of their right to vote in
large enough numbers to skewer election
results.
Robert Koehler, syndicated by PeaceV-
oice, is a Chicago award-winning journal-
ist and editor.