"Nothing is more rewarding than caring for our children. It should be behind everything we do. If I get to Sacramento, it will be behind everything there that I do."
Children. Offspring. This is the one thing that we have in common with all other life forms on this planet. That is the way life works. Put simply, life consists of birth, reproduction, and death. Every species does it differently. Some successful species produce many offspring but give them little protection, with most of them dying but enough surviving to successfully carry on the species. Others produce fewer children, but afford them more and longer protection. We are at an extreme edge of this scale. We produce very few children, but afford them maximum care. But even here, this varies enormously from culture to culture. Current western culture is at one extreme, producing just over two children per family on average. As the theory goes, our children should be getting the most protected childhood ever. But how are current Americans doing at this?
Our federal budget deficit rises constantly and is now over $15 trillion dollars. The whole government seems to be run like a giant Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes always come to an end. Who is scheduled to pick up the pieces? It is our children. In California, our total state debt is about $361 million, much of it in long term debt. Again, our children will be expected to pick up most of this. Is this protecting our children?
According to a UNICEF report, America ranks 20th out of 21 of the wealthiest nations in child welfare. The causes were high levels of childhood poverty, poor health coverage, lack of day care services, high rates of single parentage, and risky childhood behavior.
Childhood cancer has increased 28% in the last 30 years. The US in now first in childhood obesity. About 215,000 American children now have diabetes. 12% are born prematurely. One in every six children has some sort of developmental/personality disorder. Studies point to the American diet of pesticide laden, highly processed food as the main cause for our children's sickness. This "food" can also include unhealthy transfats, processed sugar and flour, GMOs, preservatives, and other dangerous, cancer causing chemicals. Then there are the so-called "soft drinks" of concentrated processed sugar or sweeteners and other chemicals. These corporate creations are usually given to children by their own parents. As a result, our health care costs are soaring. This, to me, is not protecting children.
California children have a particularly hard time. According to the Department of Public Health, Californians spend $15.2 billion dollars on obesity related health problems, the most in the country. Children in California have the highest rates of asthma (16%) in the nation.
Americans — including Californians — continue to cling to environmental lifestyles that will condemn our children to inheriting a polluted planet ravaged by the effect of global warming. The EPA estimates that the U.S releases 24 million tons of toxic chemicals into our air, water, and land annually. This includes 51 tons of mercury, released mainly from our 440 coal-fired electric generating plants. A study by the Environmental Working Group in 2005 discovered 287 different chemicals, most of which are toxic, in the umbilical cords of randomly selected babies born in U.S. hospitals. The U.S. releases 2.9 trillion tons of carbon pollution just with our cars and trucks. Our global warming CO2 emissions are double that of 1960. In California alone, we burn 1.3 trillion gallons of gasoline monthly. The state is the 12th largest emitter of carbon worldwide. California is in the 90th percentile in air pollution compared to other states. The EPA reports that the number of polluted rivers in California increased 170% in just the last five years, the number of fish too dangerous to eat, up 24%. This is not protecting the next generation.
And then, of course, there are our California schools. They have lost about $20 billion and about 59,000 teachers and support staff in the last four years. Fees/tuition are up about 94% in the last five years. Classes and hours have been slashed. California is now last in per pupil funding and second to last in student teacher ratio. Only 68% of high school students graduate on time, even though the state has the second lowest high school graduation requirements in the country. California students in the 4th through 8th grade are near the bottom in math and reading scores. Again, this is not protecting children. Those getting through college face more problems. Student debt is now about one trillion dollars. They are entering a shattered economy with high unemployment. Studies show that upward mobility is at an all time low. It is acknowledged that this generation of children will be, overall, less well off than their parents, a first in American history.
A lot of this neglect, especially towards other people's children, can be blamed on our culture. Sociologists claim that we have the most uncommunitarian culture that has ever existed. The expression, it takes a village to raise a child, describes what is natural for our species. In a typical human village, community, or neighborhood, all people are involved in one way or another in the raising of the children. In a typical American neighborhood, the people down the block a few dozen yards away probably barely know your child even exists. Unless those people have school age children of their own, they will likely ignore your pleas for a parcel tax to support the local schools.
Even the parents may vote against this, having squandered their money on Iphones, Ipads, Ithis or Ithat, and all other manner of materialist possessions for their children that they thought were now necessary for a happy childhood. A lot of this materialism is "possessions as compensation" for the decreasing lack of time Americans are spending with their children.
The U.S. leads the industrialized world in teen pregnancies. Government data show that more than half of American women now have their babies out of wedlock. Studies show that these children face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school, being overweight, and suffering emotional and behavioral problems. Drug addicted babies in the U.S. have nearly tripled in the last decade. 23.4% of California children live in poverty.
Cultures find different ways to deal with life's conflicting demands depending on their environment and situations. Our environment and situations are most unique, and so is our culture. One of our most extreme traits is our relatively rapid pace of change. Hopefully, for the sake of our children, I, as a legislator, can help nudge this in the right direction.
Let's just say I believe in long term planning. I would like us to pay more of our debts and to borrow and spend less just for ourselves. I would like to leave our children with a cleaner environment. I would like them to have meaningful, rewarding "green" jobs, which they can perform without causing damage to the short and long-term health of themselves and their community. I would like to restore their schools and prod and steer families toward healthier eating. I would like to see our society move more toward community living and caring, and less toward materialism and greedy individualism. I can only do so much, though, to change our culture in Sacramento, but I would like to leave you with this thought. Nothing is more rewarding than caring for our children. It should be behind everything we do. If I get to Sacramento, it will be behind everything there that I do.
See Gerry's columns from May, "Taxes," and from April, "Why Am I Running?"
