Last night, my final one in San Juan de Laguna, I had a special night out with the four children in my house: Kayla, Brian, Kayo and Alan. Instead of our typical dinner of tortillas, beans, eggs and sometimes a vegetable or two, we headed down toward the lake and had a pizza party. Maybe better said, we had a catsup party (salsa dulce) with pizza somewhere hidden underneath. The kiddies just love to bury every little piece of their pizza in catsup and chile sauce. Odd, but cute. The pizza here is not very good (but still a treat), so maybe they have the right idea. The children is my family here are well-fed, compared to most in the village and certainly most in the country. And after reading this piece in Huff Post this morning, I have learned they are apparently well-fed compared to a full quarter of the children in America. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/tolerance-of-poverty_b_1582369.html
How is it possible that so many children in the richest country in the world go hungry? Maybe more critically, why isn’t this the biggest national scandal since I don’t know what? Of the more than 30 developed countries in the world, how many countries do you think we can point to that have a higher rate of child poverty and hunger? That would be one — Romania. How do we possibly have the nerve to be critical of any other country about anything?
We have an election coming up in November. I wonder if either of the candidates will boldly stand up for another War on Poverty in America? It’s unconscionable that we are talking about anything else.
Other National Scandals–How is it that the wealthiest nation in the world does not afford all of its citizens access to the best medial care in the world?! And housing?! And education?!……