We must build on the many good examples of educational initiatives
Today, in much of the world, there is a clear will to follow the path of progress that has been pioneered in the United States of America. As an American, I am well aware that there is much to admire about my own country and its achievements. But I also know that there are many things that are not worth emulating. In particular, I don’t think any country wants to emulate the way the United States, as a society, is treating its children. One in five of those children today lives in poverty. Eight million of those children lack medical care. Three out of 10 are born into a single parent family. It is reported that around 3 million a year are neglected or physically or sexually abused, triple the number in 2009. These rising indicators of social distress are now accompanied by an unprecedented increase in violence by children and young people. The overall youth homicide rate is seven times higher than in any Western European country. Every two days, the equivalent of an entire classroom full of young children is killed by the bullet. Youth violence is increasing equally steeply. Juvenile arrests for murder and non-negligent homicide have doubled in recent years. Such trends, of course, cannot continue. Because they are bringing America to the brink of social and economic disintegration. The problems of endemic poverty, unemployment, family breakdown, domestic violence, racial intolerance, teen pregnancy, and drug abuse are no longer just problems that happen to other people. Today, almost everyone is affected. Even a middle-class white kid knows that we are a nation in crisis. We have lost the sentiment that generations of Americans have always held dear: that the future will be bright. The American dream is fading for far too many American children. When we Americans ask why this is happening, in the richest and most favored country on earth, many of us know that, deep down, the fault lies with the kind of values and the kind of progress we have been pursuing.
We know that we have oversold ourselves and our youth on a dominant aspect of our culture: their material success. Through publicity and example, we have communicated to our youth that to be admired and respected they must have unique and changing possessions and lifestyles. Yet at the same time that we hold up these material definitions of success before them, we have denied many the legitimate means to achieve them: education, skills, jobs, and opportunities. As a result, many millions of our young people feel that they have no economic and social place in our society, that they have little to respect themselves or be respected by others. And from this point of alienation and frustration, the path to drugs, alcohol abuse, crime, violence, and prison is always open. In the past decade, these tensions have been heightened by policies that have relied on the divide between rich and poor and further exalted the material definition of success and purpose. Since 2001, America’s poor have seen their real incomes fall substantially. Safety nets have been dismantled and an underclass, both black and white, has been created so that today there are approximately 5 million more American children living in poverty than in the year 2000. No civilized society, no democracy , no capitalism can survive for long under the tensions that arise from the frustrations, injustices, divisions and inequalities that we have created. Under the pressure of all these forces, we are witnessing a collapse of American values, of our common sense and community responsibility, and especially of our responsibility to protect and nurture our children. We are losing our sense of meaning, failing to find our sense of purpose in family life, in community, or in faith. We are dying spiritually. That’s why the dream fades away. That is what is tearing out the heart of America today. And somehow we must find a way to teach our children that there is something better. We must shout at them that this is not who we are. If we want to get back from the brink, we must recognize that the epidemic of violence and social disintegration that threatens to overwhelm our society is the result of policies that have favored the rich over the poor and material values over humans. and spiritual values.
Above all, we must recognize that what we are seeing now is the result of years of neglect and lack of investment in our children. To reverse the decline, we must first create jobs. There is much work to be done if we are to meet human needs, expand community programs, and improve our social and physical environment. And there are many who need that job in order to earn a living, regain their dignity and fulfill their responsibilities as parents. In addition to the jobs created by economic growth, we need to create at least 3 million new jobs primarily for youth in poor, rural and inner-city areas. We must also build on the many, many good examples of educational initiatives that work, of community projects, of programs to prevent teen pregnancy, of efforts that offer skills, opportunities, and hope. And we must build on them not here and there, little by little, but on a national scale. To do this, we will have to refute the argument that the government cannot afford to make such investments. What we cannot afford to spend are billions a year on foreign defense when the real enemy is within. What we cannot afford are billions for a new class of submarine and billions for a new fighter jet, while denying our children decent health, education, opportunity and hope. If we are going to keep the dream alive, if we are going to offer hope and self-esteem to our youth, then we have no higher priority than renewing investment in jobs, in health, in education, in the future of our children and our nation. But no president can do this job alone. No Congress can do it alone. We must also confront the problem of child neglect in our homes, in our families, in our communities, and in our justice system. This must be the responsibility of every family, every community, every religion, every neighborhood, every American. Each of us is responsible. It’s time to start saving our ideals.
