2001 Commencement Address
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MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
TULANE UNIVERSITY
MAY 19, 2001
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It's
time! It's time to build a mighty movement
to Leave No Child Behind® in the richest
and most powerful nation on earth. I hope
you will be a part of it.
It's time! An
incredible magical moment in history which
few human beings have been blessed to experience.
A new millennium. A new century. A new decade.
How will we say thanks to God for the earth,
nation, and children entrusted to our care?
It's time! A
time of political transition. A new president
who repeatedly has used CDF's trademarked mission
words and promised to Leave No Child Behind®.
In his inaugural address, the President eloquently
and correctly stated that, "America, at its
best, is compassionate. In the quiet of America's
conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty
is unworthy of our nation's promise. And whatever
our views of its cause, we can agree that children
at risk are not at fault." How do we work with
him and our political leaders in both parties
to translate these words into reality for the
12 million children who are poor and the 10
million who need health insurance and the millions
more who need quality Head Start, education,
and after-school and summer programs?
It's time! The
wealthiest time in American history. A $10
trillion American economy. Eight years of unprecedented
economic growth. A projected multi-trillion
dollar federal budget surplus over the next
10 years. Number one in billionaires and millionaires.
The top Gross National Product in the world.
Many state budget surpluses. Hundreds of billions
of dollars of state tobacco settlement monies.
Billions more dollars still unspent by some
states from welfare and child health legislation.
It's time! An
era of stunning American intellectual, technological,
and scientific achievement: 168 Nobel prize
winners in science this past century. We've
sent humans to the moon, spaceships to Mars,
cracked the genetic code, amassed tens of billions
of dollars from a tiny microchip, and discovered
cures for diseases which give hope to millions
if they can access treatment. We can transmit
information faster than we can digest it and
buy anything we desire instantly on-line in
our global shopping arcade. Wouldn't you think
we could figure out how to teach all our children
to read by fourth grade?
It's time! A
churning new world order is being born. Changing
rules of doing global business are creating
important new questions, challenges, and opportunities.
Who will gain and who will be left behind?
Will the life chances of the poor, women, and
children be enhanced or exploited? Will powerful
corporate interests eviscerate or respect democratic
nation-state decision-making processes? Will
multinational conglomerates be accountable
to or run roughshod over communities and citizens
in pursuit of quicker and bigger profits? Will
the changing nature of work and the demands
of the new economy strengthen or weaken family
and community life and job security? Will cultural
homogenization and corporate branding contribute
to or detract from the rich diversity of the
world's peoples? How can we close the spiraling
digital, health, income, and education divides
between the rich and the poor of the world
and at home? Can we develop a concept of enough
for those at the bottom and at the top so that
the common good, stability, and our children's
futures will be preserved?
It's time for idealism--not
ideology. It's time for greatness--not greed.
It's time for empowering parents and young
people and citizens and communities--not just
the rich and already powerful. It's time for
moral and political leadership in all sectors
of our society to help us believe again the
words and trust the integrity of our political
leaders--not for partisan bickering and political
one upmanship. It's time for compassionate
words and compassionate budgets and tax policies
which do not favor the few at the expense of
the many and put the interests of the wealthy
ahead of the needs of our children. It's time
for sharing America's great prosperity with
all our citizens--especially children--and
millions of hard working parents struggling
to make ends meet in this time of surplus.
Just four wealthy
Americans possess greater wealth than the GNP
of the 34 least developed nations in the world
with over 650 million people. Harper's magazine
estimated in 1997 that 240,183 people could
be fed for one year with the food we Americans waste in one
day. The gaping divide between the rich
and poor nations is mirrored in the gap between
rich and poor in our own country. The wealth
of these four richest Americans exceeds that
of 14 million American families combined, exceeds
the revenues of 24 state governments with 42
million citizens, and could lift 12 million
children out of poverty five times over.
Since 1979, the
top 5 percent (3.6 million) of American families
saw their average income increase by $101,000
or 66 percent, while the bottom 20 percent
(14.4 million families) lost $184 a year from
their average income of $13,500 in 1999 dollars.
In 1999, chief corporate officers' pay ballooned
by $1.8 million to a new high of $12.4 million
each, six times what they made in 1990 and
475 times more than the average blue-collar
worker, 800 times more than the average child
care worker who helps shape children in the
formative early years, who earns $7.42 an hour,
$15,430 a year and 315 times more than the
average public school teacher who earns $39,300
a year.
Between 1999 and
2000, the U.S. economy grew by half a trillion
dollars, the largest single-year jump ever
recorded. This increase alone was 13 times
the amount needed to end child poverty in America
which afflicts over 12 million American children
-- one in six. Although 78 percent of poor
children lived in households where someone
worked in 1999, their increased work effort
did not get them ahead.
Something crucial
is missing from our current picture of enormous
American achievement and prosperity. It's justice and
hope for all and a commitment to see that no
child is left behind in the richest and most
powerful nation on earth.
- An American
child is born into poverty every 44 seconds--most
of them are White, live outside inner cities
and in households where someone works. Almost
317,000 Louisiana children are poor--about
1 in 4.
- An American
child is born without health insurance every
minute although we lead the world in health
technology; 290,000--nearly 1 in 4 Louisiana
children lack health insurance. Louisiana
ranks 48th in the percentage of
children without health insurance and 38th in
child immunizations for two-year olds.
- An American
child is reported abused or neglected every
11 minutes -- in Louisiana one child every
35 minutes.
- An American
child or youth is killed by guns every 2
hours and 20 minutes (10 every day) -- in
Louisiana one child every 2 days.
Child poverty,
neglect, health care, illiteracy, and gun
deaths are not acts of God. They are our
moral and political choices as a nation.
Since 1968 we decreased poverty among the
elderly more than 60 percent while the child
poverty rate increased 8 percent. Child hunger
was virtually eliminated in the 1970s thanks
to a series of events set in motion by an
outraged Senator Robert F. Kennedy after
seeing the bloated bellies of hungry children
on his visit to the Mississippi Delta in
1967. He returned to Washington determined
to do something about it. His passionate
concern catalyzed a series of changes that
led to an expansion of child and family nutrition
programs during the Nixon administration
years. He encouraged doctors to go out into
poor communities to examine children and
to document hunger. He convinced Agriculture
Secretary Orville Freeman to reduce food
stamp barriers after sending Freeman's disbelieving
staff to see first hand that there really
were people in Mississippi with no income.
He encouraged CBS' 60 Minutes to do a documentary
and encouraged fellow senators to hold hearings
to make visible the existence of hungry children
across America. Hearing my despair later
that year over the continuing suffering of
Mississippi's poor after his earlier visit,
he told me to tell Dr. King to bring the
poor to Washington to make their needs visible
and to make our political leaders act. We
both feared the Vietnam War was diverting
more and more attention from the struggle
against poverty at home.
Each of these statistics
is a real child like Antonio and a life and
death issue for some child in America today.
Maria, his young mother, was sent home with
Antonio the day he was born. Only she didn't
have a home. She was a single parent with no
extended family support. But she loved her
baby and within the limits of public assistance
found a small room. About three months later,
Maria called the health clinic to report her
baby was sick. The nurse told Maria to bring
him in. Maria said she didn't have transportation.
The nurse asked for the baby's symptoms, and
upon hearing that the baby had diarrhea for
two days, concluded he had a flu virus that
was going around and advised the mother to
keep the baby hydrated. "Feed the baby liquids
every hour. Pedialyte or apple juice is good." Maria
went to the refrigerator. She certainly didn't
have Pedialyte, apple juice, or even ice. In
her cupboard, she did have tomato sauce, so
she filled the baby's bottle with tomato sauce
and stayed up all night, feeding him every
hour on the hour. The sodium content of the
tomato sauce accelerated Antonio's dehydration
and by morning his tiny body was lifeless.
Should any parent in rich America have to watch
a child die because she does not have enough
food or cannot afford transportation to get
needed health care?
A Texas mother
with an $8 an hour salary and no health insurance
described her stressful dilemma when her daughter
woke her up in the middle of the night gasping
for breath saying her inhaler was broken. The
mother had to debate whether to rush her child
to the emergency room or to an all-night drugstore
for an over-the-counter remedy she prayed would
work. She realized later that for $88 she was
gambling with her child's life. Should any
parent or child face this draconian choice
in rich America?
It's time
to realize Dr. King's dream and to avoid his
nightmare. The day after Dr. King's assassination
on April 4, 1968, the pent-up rage, hurt, and
grief of poor Black communities exploded in
riots across America. As smoke swirled through
the air of Washington, D.C., I visited several
public schools to urge children not to loot,
risk arrest, and jeopardize their futures.
A 12-year-old boy looked me straight in the
eye and said, "Lady, what future? I ain't got
no future. I ain't got nothing to lose."
That child's truth
is a truth Dr. King died trying to get us to
do something about when he reminded us of the
parable of the rich man Dives and the poor
man Lazarus in a sermon at the Washington National
Cathedral the Sunday before his death. "Dives
did not go to hell because of his wealth," Dr.
King said, "but because he refused to see and
help his brother." He feared America could
make the same mistake and warned that our wealth
could be either our opportunity or our downfall.
He called for a Poor People's Campaign to help
bridge the gulf between the haves and the have
nots. "The question is whether America will
do it. There is nothing new about poverty.
What is new is that we now have the techniques
and the resources to get rid of poverty. The
real question is whether we have the will."
That is still the
real and even more urgent question in a $10
trillion American economy that has tripled
in real value since Dr. King's death. Although
America has made enormous racial and economic
progress in many areas, huge inequalities remain.
In 1968, 11 million American children -- 15.6
percent -- were poor; in 1999, 12.1 million
American children --16.9 percent -- were poor.
A majority live in working families.
It's time to end
child poverty in rich America. President George
W. Bush and members of Congress have the opportunity
to take a giant step towards this goal by making
the President's proposal to double the Child
Tax Credit from $500 to $1,000 refundable. This
single act would lift two million children
from poverty--one-sixth of all poor children--and
1.8 million from extreme poverty right now.
41,000 Louisiana children would be rescued
from poverty and 1,097,000 would be significantly
helped. If the President and Congress fail
to make the Child Tax Credit refundable, 16
million children will be left behind -- one
in four of all children. In an administration
budget which invests at least $40 for every
$1 proposed for the education of our children
in a tax bill of 1.3 - 1.6 trillion dollars
which benefits primarily the wealthiest Americans,
a tax refund for the parents of the 16 million
children left behind who pay high payroll taxes
and state and local taxes would add a touch
of fairness to a tax cut that helps those who
have most rather than those who need most.
It is not right that a majority of Black and
Hispanic families will get no tax cut and that
millions of children will be left behind from
a child tax credit we have the money to help.
When Jesus Christ said 'let the children come
unto me,' He did not say only wealthy children
or those with incomes above $25,000 or $30,000.
I think the urgent needs of hungry, homeless,
and poorly educated children should come before
investing $266 billion in repealing the estate
tax which will help only the top 2%. If you
agree, I hope you will make your voices heard
this week.
What Can You
Do to Help Build a Nation Which Values Each Sacred
Child?
The first thing
you can do to redefine the measure of success
in our power and money-crazed culture? Never
work just for money and power. They will
not help you sleep at night or buy you a
ticket to heaven or a loving family. Dr.
King shared his dream of an America that
would judge children not by the color of
their skin, the stylishness of their clothes
and cars, or the size of their bank accounts,
but by the content of their character. Senator
Robert Kennedy urged us in a University of
Kansas speech not to surrender "community
excellence and community values to the mere
accumulation of material things," and said
the Gross National Product (GNP) was a very
poor measurement for what is important in
life. He said it did not count the health
of our children, the quality of their education,
the joy of their play, the strength of our
marriages, the intelligence of our public
debate, the integrity of our public officials,
or our courage and wisdom. "The GNP measures
everything," he said, "except that which
makes life worthwhile."
The second is
to assign yourself to make a difference in
building a just America where no child is
left behind. Many people are waiting
for their Dr. King and Mahatma Gandhi to
come back and set things right. They're not.
We're it. The real challenge is not what to
do for children but how to build the
spiritual and civic will to achieve what
all children need for all children. How do
we build a broad-based movement to Leave
No Child Behind that has the transforming
power of the civil rights, anti-war, and
environmental movements of the 1960s and
1970s? How do we evoke in the American people
the same deep ingrained national commitment
to voteless children that existed to protect
elderly Americans from poverty, hunger, and
social isolation? How do we move children's
needs to the top of community, state, and
national agendas regardless of who is in
office? How do we mobilize and organize a
critical mass of Americans to demand concrete
major actions from policy makers and then
hold them accountable? How do we present
a bold, visionary, and comprehensive agenda
that covers all of children's needs, rather
than piecemeal, fragmented incremental steps
that do not resonate beyond the beltway,
state capitals, or policy wonks? How do we
bring together disparate child advocates
and service providers (child care, child
welfare, child health, education, youth development,
juvenile justice, and violence prevention)
with powerful mainstream networks (faith,
women, parents and grandparents, youths,
and health professionals) to support, strengthen,
and achieve an inspiring big vision to protect
the whole child and family and to rebuild
community and a sense of common space and
purpose as a nation?
Sojourner Truth,
an illiterate slave woman, provided the model.
She never missed a chance--however hopeless
her cause seemed to speak out against slavery
and second class citizenship for women. One
day she was heckled by an old White man who
told her he didn't care anymore about her anti-slavery
talk than for an old fleabite. She snapped
back, "That's alright. The Lord willing, I'm
going to keep you scratching." So must we keep
our leaders scratching until no child is left
behind. Enough fleas biting strategically can
make the biggest dogs uncomfortable. I hope
you will join me in being a flea for justice
for children in America.
We can build a
nation where families have the support they
need to make it at work and at home; where
every child enters school ready to learn and
leaves on the path to a productive future;
where babies are likely to be born healthy,
and sick children have the health care they
need; where no child has to grow up in poverty;
where all children are safe in their communities
and every child has a place to call home --
and all Americans can proudly say "We Leave
No Child Behind."
Let me end with
a prayer for each of us on this glorious day
of achievement and joy to care and to serve
and to build an America where every child is
healthy, safe, educated, and able to contribute
to our great country's future.
I Care and I
Am Willing to Serve
Lord I cannot
preach like Martin Luther King, Jr.
or turn a poetic
phrase like Maya Angelou
but I care
and am willing to serve.
I do not have
Fred Shuttlesworth's and Harriet
Tubman's courage
or Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's political
skills
but I care
and am willing to serve.
I cannot
sing like Fannie Lou Hamer
or organize like
Ella Baker and Bayard Rustin
but I care
and am willing to serve.
I am not holy
like Archbishop Tutu,
forgiving like
Mandela, or disciplined like Gandhi
but I care
and am willing to serve.
I am not brilliant
like Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois or
Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, or as eloquent as
Sojourner Truth
and Booker T. Washington
but I care
and am willing to serve.
I have not Mother
Teresa's saintliness,
Dorothy Day's
love or Cesar Chavez's
gentle tough
spirit
but I care
and am willing to serve.
God it is not
as easy as it used to be
to frame an issue
and forge a solution
but I care
and am willing to serve.
My mind and body
are not so swift as in youth
and my energy
comes in spurts
but I care
and am willing to serve.
I'm so young
nobody will listen
I'm not sure
what to say or do
but I care
and am willing to serve.
I can't see or
hear well
speak good English,
stutter sometimes, am afraid of criticism
and get real
scared standing up before others
but I care
and am willing to serve.
Lord, use me as
Thou will today and tomorrow and to help build
a nation and world where no child is left behind
and everyone feels welcome. |