THESE ARE OUR KIDS AS WELL AS THEIRS

Whether Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal, Americans should surely support unanimously, vigorously and with a whole heart the well-being of all our children…. after all, they are the only future we have. Yet First Star’s distinguished child welfare experts tell us repeatedly and clearly that threats just as scary as those of Homeland Security endanger the safety and future of many American children: right here, right now: abuse, neglect and the real perils of our nation's broken-down child welfare and foster care systems. The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System shows that more than three million children were involved in reports of abuse and neglect in 2002. Of those children, 896,000 were victims and 1,390 died. Appallingly, three quarters of these deaths were under the age of five.

Many more maltreated children die an emotional death and suffer unimaginable stress, severe anxiety, depression and low self-esteem that blight their prospects for a happy, productive life: half the adult males in our prisons were abused or neglected as children…. what does that cost us? Thousands of abused kids think about or attempt suicide. In 2001, over half a million children were in foster care. What's worst is that in many cases they are placed there into harm's way by the government which claims to be protecting them through foster care. The dictionary defines "foster" as "to bring up, nurture, promote the growth and development of, nurse or cherish." Foster care should always provide security and protection from an unsafe home. Unfortunately, often it is even worse. And too many children become stuck in perpetual foster care motion: moved repeatedly from house to house and never finding permanency. Both children and society pay a heavy price for this unstable, precarious reality. The federal government sets standards to protect children and find safe, permanent homes for them. Yet not one state has fully complied. By many measures the United States ranks dead last or almost last among First World nations in the way we handle these special children…. But they have no lobbyists, they don’t vote and so they have no real voice to protest.

Hello, America: this is happening on our watch! William Gray (D-PA), former Majority Whip and Chairman of the House Budget Committee, who serves as Vice Chair of the non-partisan Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, notes, "The foster care system is in disrepair. Every state has now failed the federal foster care reviews and we've seen far too many news stories of children missing from the system or injured while in care..." The Commission recently released far-reaching recommendations to overhaul the nation's foster care system. Formulated by leading experts, these recommendations represent intensive analysis and interviews with professionals, parents and children. Commission Chairman Bill Frenzel (R-MN) says that these recommendations include "greater accountability by both child welfare agencies and courts; giving states a flexible, reliable source of federal funding, new options and incentives to seek safety and permanence for children in foster care and helping courts secure the tools, information and training needed to fulfill their responsibilities to children." What is not to like?

Much of this work to put kids first involves changing their status as chattel or property under our legal system. How can it be right that in half the country a man who beats a dog goes to jail but the one who beats a child the same way is never prosecuted?

First Star (www.firststar.org ), the charity I founded in 1999, is working day and night right now on three critically important issues for children in the upcoming 109th Congress: to guarantee abused children in all fifty states the right to a competent attorney during court proceedings where their future is held in the balance, to eliminate legal and regulatory barriers that prevent those children’s advocates from exchanging information vital to keeping them out of dangerous situations and to shine the light of day where bureaucracy is hidden in shadows away from public scrutiny and accountability. First Star recently sponsored our third bipartisan Congressional Roundtable on Children on Capitol Hill, co-chaired by Congresswomen Mary Bono (R-CA) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA). Members of Congress used the First Star event to draft a letter urging President Bush to work specifically to eradicate our national plague of child maltreatment. The Co-Chairs are asking every member of the upcoming Congress to join in reforming the current broken child welfare and foster care systems. Congressional member-advocates of the First Star Roundtable are raising the consciousness of their fellow-members and constituents regarding the abuse and neglect of children.

I hope and pray as an American Dad that President Bush will prioritize the rights of our children during his upcoming second term. Likewise, I hope every member of the 109th Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, will join First Star in reforming the current child welfare and foster care systems. Their disrepair poses a true threat to our nation and to the safety and happiness of our nation's most vulnerable children. Let's nurture these kids and give them a fair chance for healthy and bright futures. What better investment can we make? If not, who are we? And if not now, when?

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Film producer Peter Samuelson (“Wilde", “Tom & Viv”, “Arlington Road”, "Stormbreaker") has founded two major charities for children: Starlight-Starbright (1982) www.slsb.org and First Star (1999) www.firststar.org He lives in Holmby Hills with his wife and four children and may be reached at petersam@who.net