SOCIETY: FOURTH PILLAR OF SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN
Society means 'we', which means everyone has a voice and a role to play in protecting children.
Summary: For public policies that support children’s health, we all have a voice and a responsibility. To reach your Senator or Representative: (202) 224-3121.
There may never be a more critical time than now to speak up for children, nor a more non-partisan issue than their failing health. By using our voices to policymakers and spending our consumer dollars wisely, each of us can help shape more protective policies for children and encourage healthier products in the marketplace.
Here we focus on protective policies for children.
Our senators will be voting this week on whether Robert F. Kennedy, Jr will head the Department of Health and Human services. The questions asked of him in two confirmation hearings focused largely on vaccines and abortion, two politically charged issues. Vaccine questions dominated both hearings.
Some senators believe vaccines are essential to saving lives; others believe vaccines are being overused and may have become harmful to their health overall. Studies of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children are just emerging, with a 2020 study concluding that “A thorough evaluation of vaccinated versus unvaccinated populations is essential to understanding the full spectrum of health effects associated with specific vaccines and the childhood vaccine schedule in totality.” It will take time and more objective science to sort out whether unvaccinated children are actually healthier, as the 2020 study suggested.
One of America’s greatest strengths is our freedom to speak up about things we feel are important. From slavery and racism to toxic waste dumps in poor neighborhoods, Americans have always had the freedom, the right, and ultimately the responsibility, to boycott, peacefully protest, petition, and advocate for better protection and support, especially when government fails to act.
And we have failed to act. As measured in both physical and mental health, America’s children have become sicker in body and mind than they were only a few decades ago. (See paragraph 4 this earlier post.) Our failure to protect them appears to be a systemic one and a reflection of our not adequately understanding the root causes of disease.
Thankfully, with national conversation turning to health and our chronic disease epidemic, we are finally asking good questions: Why are so many artificial ingredients still being added to processed food in America when they are banned in other countries? Or granted ‘generally recognized as safe’ status without testing? Why have we not yet secured protections for children on social media? Why do we still have no standards and protections for the use of wireless technology when we’ve known for decades that it negatively impacts human health, especially the developing brains of children? Why has it taken so long to remove fluoride from water systems when we have long known about its negative impacts on IQ? And why was mercury’s use in dental amalgam not banned long ago when the proof of its toxicity was first known?
Why has America not applied the precautionary principle, especially when children’s health is at stake?
Has society merely been asleep at the wheel, stressed by modern life, distracted by illness itself? Do we just not understand the dangers? Has allopathic medicine failed to explore the root causes of disease and thus cannot teach us why we are sick? Has government been so thoroughly captured by industry that public outcries make no difference? Has the science been so unsettled and/or conflicted that neither activists nor government can make their case?
Perhaps we have been living in a paradigm that believes science and technology will save us, will always find a cure or a fix. Perhaps we have known the dangers but traded away our health to keep the economy strong and jobs growing. Perhaps we are so enamored of wealth and achievement that we fail to think critically about where that wealth could take us.
Our failure as a society to protect and support the health of ourselves and our children has no lack of reasons.
America is in a very critical moment. Our children are sick, and we want to know why. Most importantly, we seem to be finding our voices and valuing our freedom to use them.
Meaningful change will come from society leaning into the values we espouse, asking for objective science, and for positive change.
No individual, family, community, or even state can effectively address large system concerns alone; national action is required. This makes ‘we the people’ an important voice for children. Our policymakers need to hear from us, especially on the critical issue of making America healthy; you can comment to any lawmaker via the congressional switchboard: (202) 224-3121. Or find your elected officials here.
It does not matter which side of the aisle we favor, the hope is that children’s health can help bring unity to a politically divided nation. And that good questions and good science will help us get there.