Janet Sherwood-Flores

Here's THE THING: Education is the answer for making a better world. BUT education takes time. What do we do in the meantime for the starving, the suffering and the downtrodden? We must educate our parents to make a positive difference for their children. But it's the Meantime Children who worry me. Meantime Children are hungry and sick and suffering. Meantime Children are being beaten and damaged while we educate their parents. Cutting funding for education is a short-sited crime that will result in the collective ignorance of our populace. But cutting funding for programs that protect and provide for Meantime Children is a moral indignity that will lead to the disintegration of our world. Don't get me wrong, I've given my entire life to education. But if someone is bleeding to death, we have to stop the bleeding before we can teach the person to use a tourniquet. If children are sick or hungry, sleep on a dirt floor or in the back seat of a car, WE CAN"T TEACH THEM. If children come to school after having witnessed daddy beating mommy to a pulp, big brother being hauled away by the swat team or sister entertaining her "clients," WE CAN'T TEACH THEM. So, what I'm trying to say is, that before we congratulate ourselves on funding programs that make us feel good, let's take a look at what's being done to save our children in the meantime.