America Says It Protects Children. The Reality Tells a Different Story. America loves to say it cares about children. “Family values”, “protecting the innocent,” and “defending life” are the battle cries of many of the elections. But after the election, you have to look at how this country actually treats living, breathing children. Not the unborn, not the symbolic idea of a child, but real kids in real situations. That is when the truth becomes unavoidable. Children in America are not a priority; they are just something to use to get elected and then put out of mind when the election is over. Children are actually the people who survive some of the worst kinds of abuse and are treated as if they barely exist. You can see the contradiction everywhere. The fetus is talked about like it is sacred, but once it becomes a child, the urgency disappears. The family the politician claims is so important is left to figure everything out alone. Survivors of child sexual assault ...
The disaster that many of us knew would happen is here. But to be honest with you, to say “I told you so” would just make it worse. There are times in a nation’s life when the truth stops being something people argue about and becomes something people can feel and see. We are in one of those moments now. The consequences of recent decisions, in the courts, in the economy, and in foreign policies aren’t theories anymore. They are showing up in our grocery bill, and strained foreign alliances, in the stress families carry, and the way that the world looks at the United States. As tempting as it is for people to say “I told you so”, that phrase would only make the situation worse. Not because the warnings were wrong, but because it would appear to be gloating. That may shut down the very people who most need to look at what's happening. The Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling is a good place to start, because it didn’t just change the legal standard; i...