Just when everything is starting to seem too complicated and insurmountable (ugh, maybe I should just stick to the laundry), I stumble across yet another scorecard that at least makes the 'who's voting for what' part of this activism thing easy. Glad someone else has the time and inclination to sort it out and compile it all, because I sure don't! The Children's Defense Fund does an annual Congressional Scorecard titled "Did Your Members of Congress Protect Children?" Uh, I hope so - better check.
Turns out that while we may have the shortest school year in the nation, at least we don't top the list in number of anti-children lawmakers. Got to be grateful for the small stuff, mamas. And bless Sen. Ron Wyden for scoring 100% - landing himself (and therefore us!) on the Best Senators for Children list. Not surprisingly, none of the Oregonians in DC made the worst list (0% votes for children - as defined by the CDF). As a group, our folks made neither the top 10 or bottom 10. Happily, we ranked a pretty high 14. Not so bad. Sure wouldn't mind being on that top 10 list, though...
If you dip into the report you'll find it chock full of inspiring quotes in addition to a lot of well-summarized data. But since I imagine that you have as little time on your hands as I do, I'm sharing one that really struck me:
We are guilty of many errors and many faults but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. We cannot answer him "Tomorrow." His name is "Today." Gabriela Mistral
Now that you're ready to jump up and do something RIGHT NOW, check out CDF's Action Council page - it's got some good info and action opportunities (from real simple to ending poverty in the U.S. by 2015!). And forewarned is fair warned, mamas, CDF doesn't exactly mince words.
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