The wealth of a nation does not sit in bank vaults, printed in denominations of one, five, ten, twenty, fifty, and one hundred. It is not reflected by the numbers that swiftly scroll across video displays announcing the value of its stocks and bonds. Or held in the safes, deeds of property, and futures investments, of its wealthiest citizens. The wealth of a nation is its children. Which, when properly nurtured, will yield a more lucrative return than all other investments combined.
A nation’s children build on its past and lay the foundation for its future. They are the voice that will outline and debate its future policies, the hands that will sign them into law, and the face its citizens will praise or blame when those policies succeed or fail. A nation that does not attend to the health, welfare, and needs of its children, or does not protect them from harm, is a nation whose future existence, is in jeopardy!
Today, the United States stands on the brink of becoming that nation. Its future, balanced between its action or inaction, in response to the damage and destruction gun violence, has inflicted upon our children. We can no longer make the contradictory claim that we love them, while our insistence that our right to own a gun, outweighs their right, to live!
We are a partisan nation; that hides its divisions in plain sight. That does not address them until they boil-over and cause irreparable harm. Then pretends to fix them while ignoring their root-cause.
If we loved our children, we would feed those who are poor, without complaint. We would redirect some of the money we spend on weapons systems, to provide quality healthcare, safe schools, and marketable educations that will enable them to succeed and lead productive lives.
We would enact safeguards to prevent a family’s financial ruin when an illness creates high medical bills. And we would prosecute to the fullest extent any adult, who allows a child to die because their religious beliefs call for faith through prayer, rather than medical care.
The assumption that we would disrespect the religious beliefs of the parents, if we interfered in these rituals, is false. Children, do not inherit their parent's religious beliefs.
Many of you might be angry about what I’m saying. How dare you say I do not love my children! If I were accusing you of not loving your children, you would be right to be angry. But it is not your children to whom I’m referring. It is our children. All of them!
We can no longer sit idle while Congress cuts programs enacted to aid the poor, because the current ideology, is that we’ve given the poor too much. But allow them to increase Military spending, boost Foreign Aid, and provide tax breaks for the rich. Low-income families have children as well. And if we love our children, we will take care of them. We will take care of them, all!
