child care - Digital Library Collections

A Child Shall Lead Us
America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be
good, America will cease to be great.
Alexis de Tocquevi/le
Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found
neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a
higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truth of
both.... It means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the
problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together!
These are the triple evils that are interrelated."
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Where Do We Go from Here:
Chaos or Community?
You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor.
Exodus 23:6
merica appears to be riding high on the cusp
of the 21st century and third millennium.
Wall Street is booming. Excess, Russell
Baker says, has become a way oflife for the
){ery rich. In what may be the ultimate in
corporate hubris, Miller Brewing Company has applied
for a trademark or been recently registered as
the "official sponsor of the Millennium" according
to Harper's Magazine. Corporate CEOs, who
earned 41 times what their workers made in 1960,
made 185 times as much as their workers in 1995.
The average CEO in 1995 earned more every two
days than the average worker earned in a whole
year. Fortune 500 CEOs averaged $7.8 million
each in total compensation. This exceeds the average
salaries of 226 school teachers a year.
The rosy view of American prosperity at the
top hides deep and dangerous moral, economic,
age, and racial fault lines lurking beneath the surface.
Unless we heed and correct them, they will
destroy America's fundamental ideals of justice
and equal opportunity, family and community stability,
economic productivity, and moral legitimacy
as the democratic standard bearer in the
next era.
In the 25 years since the Children's Defense
Fund began, great progress has been made in improving
children's lives in many areas. Millions of
children with disabilities have a right to education;
millions of poor children have received a Head
Start, health care, immunizations, better child care,
and permanent adoptive homes. But shamefully
high child poverty rates persist, and children are
the poorest group of Americans. The gap between
America's poor and rich has grown into a chasm,
the wages of young families with children have
eroded, and many middle class families are treading
economic water.
Since 1989 the poorest fifth of families have
lost $587 each and the richest 5 percent have
CHI L D R EN' S D E FEN S E FUN D xi