thematically fickle

I believe that a society is judged by how it treats the least among it. The elderly, the sick, the young. Someday, when history takes a look back at what kind of place the United States has become under George W. Bush and the Republican party (and, to an extent, the neutered and all-to-frequently ameobic Democratic party), it will be glaringly obvious that we do not value family, children, education. In other words, we do not value our future.

During another bout of insomnia, I read this article in the New York Times, all but guaranteeing that I wouldn’t be going back to sleep. Everyone, even non-parents, should read this piece; it is about all of us.

Go read about our flailing public school system, about the record number (nearly fifteen million) of children qualifying for free lunch, about the cuts that leave kids with no way to get to and from school, about four-day school weeks and, presumably, longer hours in the classroom during those four days. Read about parents who can’t afford backpacks or school supplies. Read about how the number of homeless children—that’s kids without a place to live—has tripled in Mobile, Alabama since the end of the last school year and how this is no isolated occurrence but rather is a reflection of what is happening all across our “great” nation.

Please. Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted and then read the article slowly, sentence by sentence. Maybe you’ll even have to re-read some of the more shocking points just because they’re so unbelievable. Don’t skim. Ingest it. And then percolate for a while on precisely who we as a culture have allowed ourselves to become. Imagine if you’re that family they’re describing. Maybe you are that family. Imagine what a working class family will do with their kid(s) on that Monday each week when schools are closed. Imagine, too, your child going to school with a child from that family. While you’re imagining, keep reading.

And while you’re reading? Try not to think about the words “No Child Left Behind.” Try not to think about the wealthiest people in this country enjoying unprecedented tax breaks. Try not to think about those tax breaks becoming permanent under John McCain. Because if you think about those things while reading this heartbreaking piece, you’re likely to be awake all night tonight. Quite possibly tomorrow night, too.

History will not be kind to us because we do not deserve it to be so.

Vote Barack Obama.