| NAASCA Posters / Essays Celebrating April as National Child Abuse Awareness Month | |
| Child Abuse lives everywhere -- don't be afraid to talk about it | 24 of 30 .. |
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Child Abuse lives .. ...... in every community ...... kid's Civil Rights denied The one remaining and almost completely hidden issue of equality and Civil Rights are those of children. Every citizen in America is guaranteed the right to enjoy the same Constitutionally protections .. and the rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We measure the success of the American Dream against the equal distribution of these guarantees, and over the years we've seen sometimes desperate long-term struggles to ensure them. The Civil War was fought in the 1860s largely to decide whether States' Rights could supercede Constitutional Rights, opening the door to the Civil Rights Movement for people of color a century later. Less than 100 years ago women won the right to vote, leading to the more recent Woman's Rights Movement. Today there is a well-established and ongoing fight for the rights of the LBGT community. Few believe we'll ever go back to a time when the Civil Rights of these groups will be completely denied. In each case it was the raised voice of the group of people suffering inequality that eventually caused the rest of the country to pay heed. But children have no voice. Adults must speak FOR them. As a group of citizens they, too, deserve the same rights, services and protection of the Federal Government as every other group, rights that should not be denied solely on the basis of their youth. We are discriminating against children simply because of their age, treating them unequally and holding against them the fact that they don't complain. Until we recognize these citizens deserve the Constitutional Civil Rights of any other group we'll not see this as a National priority, and won't rally all the resources we need to protect and serve them. It'll stay a local issue. Let's not doom yet another generation of kids to the pain and suffering of child abuse, trauma and neglect. Please see: www.ChildrensRights.org |
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