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THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK 1998
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and liberal Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy
to introduce bipartisan child health legislation
in 1997, successfully take on the powerful
tobacco industry, and get a $48 billion state child
health insurance program included in a balanced
budget agreement partially funded by a tobacco
tax? And who would have predicted in 1998 how
many politicians in both parties and interest groups
who pooh-poohed the request by Senators Hatch
and Kennedy for a 43 cent tobacco tax are now
lined up seeking a windfall from proposed tobacco
tax legislation only a few months later?
6. We can make a commitment to reach out to
and save at least one child not our own. Each of us,
by making a difference in the life of at least one
child, can make a difference in the lives of our
communities and nation. Over 3,000 years ago five
women saved a people by saving one child. Jochebed,
Moses' mother; Miriam, Moses' sister; and the
Egyptian pharaoh's daughter who rescued the Jewish
slave baby boy Moses from the bulrushes transcended
class, caste, religion, and ethnic boundaries
to save one boy child who later saved a whole
people. Two Hebrew slave midwives, Shiphrah and
Puah, also were crucial in the salvation of the Hebrew
people. They disobeyed Pharaoh's order to
kill all male Hebrew babies because they feared and
respected God's law more than the king's. These
five unlikely social revolutionaries-a mother, a sister,
a royal daughter, and two slave midwives-were
God's instruments for the liberation of an entire
people and changed the course of human history.
Remember their examples when you fear challenging
powerful opponents and barriers to child protection
and investment. Just do what is right for the
child-every child-every time.
7. We can stand together and keep building a
powerful moral movement to Leave No Child Behind.
Through prayer, service, organized advocacy,
action, and through our votes we can and
will move America to protect and invest in all our
children and in its future. On June I, 1996, nearly
300,000 citizens of every age, race, faith, and political
persuasion stood at the Lincoln Memorial
in the largest demonstration of commitment to
children in American history.
On June I, 1997, we stood again for healthy
children in more than 700 local events in all 50
states and on the Internet. This Stand for Healthy
Children, together with a broad-based national
Child Health Now coalition CDF co-convened
with the American Cancer Society, helped enact
the landmark $48 billion bipartisan State Children's
Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Over
the next 10 years CHIP will provide health insurance
to 5 million of the more than II million
uninsured children-if states are held accountable.
On June I, 1998, we will Stand for Quality
Child Care in all 50 states and in a Cyber Stand.
Our goal is to ensure quality affordable child care
options for millions of preschool and school-age
children. We reject any efforts by anyone to provoke
a "mommy war." We believe that all parents
should have a chance to stay at home and care for
their children without fear of poverty or should be
able to work without worrying about the safety and
quality of the care their children receive.
And we will stand every year, for as long as it
takes to eliminate physical and spiritual child poverty
and the teen pregnancy, violence, school dropout,
hopelessness, and moral drift it spawns in
children of every race and income group. Jobs, not
jails; families, not phantom jets; conscience, not
consumerism; morality, not money must become
our personal and collective values if America is to
be truly great.
It is a long, hard road from Egypt to Canaan
and from slavery to freedom. The journey takes
perseverance, sacrifice, and faith. It takes good
leaders and good followers. Let us continue to
move forward together until no child is left behind
and our Creator can say well done!
Marian Wright Edelman
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