Leading is Better than Bleeding

The kids are watching and hoping the Better part begins real soon.

Mar 03, 2021

Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana are among the worst states for children during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study from Save the Children.

The study ranks states using a combination of factors including child hunger, access to technology for remote learning and adult difficulty with paying bills each month.

Under those criteria, Texas ranked 48th, Mississippi 49th and Louisiana 50th.

(Above and subsequent passages quoted are by Lexi Lonas, writing for The Hill on 3/2/2021)

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I do believe sages and saviors and sociologists have intoned and advised and cajoled and warned us that the wisest and most benevolent should pay heed: Gotta take care of the children.

Science and math and religion should have no greater intersection than to agree “We Must Take Care of the Children. And there’s places in this country where we’re failing to do that. WE. WE own THAT.”

>> “The digital divide is largest in West Virginia, where 40% of families do not always have internet available for school. The rate is over one-third in Montana, Oklahoma and Texas,” the study says.

Black and Hispanic students and households struggled more than White students and households in all of the criteria, according to the study.

Overall, the study found that the poorest families and those in rural areas were hit the hardest by the pandemic. << (Lonas, again)

We have an infrastructure that is failing to reach one quarter of our country’s citizens. They work, pay taxes, some get to rest on a holy day or holiday. Some don’t.

People are being thrown bodily into the sinkhole of despair. Little people who want to grow up and have a chance. Young people who want to think and create and build character and excellence and weave it into the fabric of this town, city, state, country, Bright Blue Marble we find ourselves living in. Little people who include those who will also work on the front lines in any viral or man-made war.

Failing. Them.

There is no government or religion or institution of learning that can survive when a generation is so badly abandoned, wanting for food & shelter and public education that’s so glaringly visible in West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas (and there’s certainly many other places that aren’t exactly thriving either).

Lonas closes with: The best states for children to be in during the pandemic included Minnesota, Utah and Washington.

So what are the top states doing right? Why do their residents deserve better treatment from elected officials and business leaders than West Virginians and Mississippians are getting? Why not emulate the successes, not the leaders with records of miserable results?

Grown-ups, the adults in this country, are hammering home the message that 25% of the country - 83 million people - have to make it on their own without the infrastructure that’s been built for the rest of us. Some without food.

83 million people is more people than the total population of 176 countries. Only 19 countries are larger than the 83 million people we’re failing.

What was reported about Jesus or any spiritual adviser or prophet or god when they advised us about caring for the kids? Or loving the neighbors?

This is beyond partisan politics or the balance sheets of any corporation or family biz. This is about survival. It’s not about some deity turning his back on us because compulsive prayer in schools always creates pockets of hate towards people of other faiths and people with no faith at all in deities. It’s about hunger pains. And $10,000 electric bills caused by government and business models that failed.

There is enough food available. How can this be defined as a sustainable model for growth? It sounds more like subsidized income for coroners and undertakers.

If we have to stop any legit steal at all, we have to stop bleeding our children and young adults. We have to fight the bleeders dispensing snake oil and leech cures.

Their future and our capacity to gain a civil civilized nation requires better infrastructure being built for the first time, then rebuilding a better, durable infrastructure for all.

This pandemic has exposed the dire inequities. Educators and child health experts keep reporting the dangers being imposed, which will remain even after Covid is conquered. Treating working families so shoddily and blocking their paths to upward mobility is loser economics. It’s like trying to build skyscrapers on sandstone and sinkholes.

There is nothing moral in any leadership that promises rewards in the post-life if their followers shut up about their hunger pains now. That’s extremist cult-level carney talk from the shimmy-shake down the rubes bunch. It’s not loving any neighbor. It’s only promoting fear and ongoing pain. Most neighborhood clergy knows the difference between building back a stronger community and political shamwow that bleeds working people of every race and gender and religious denomination.

Your kids and mine are being treated to a future of bullying, of shameless lying about violence and theft and failed management of natural resources.

Our children are national resources too. Our greatest ones.

There are good leaders with sound ideas like major public works replacement programs that employ tens of millions of workers and paying them livable wages.
Roads, bridges, access to digital libraries and credible research and news sources. Better energy models that don’t break down or overwhelm the atmosphere with greenhouse gases that accelerate violent climate changes and wars to control energy supplies.

There is so much untapped wealth in the brains of our kids.

Whatever the political topic of the day is, the foundation of a Better or Great Society is always going to be those kids. It’s time we act with them as our highest priority.

Unless you believe they aren’t.

Streams of Crunchiness

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