A Country that leaves 3 year olds Behind

It’s amazing to me how the recent political environment has led to the US prioritizing spending cuts for its most vulnerable populations.  Clearly, this does not happen in other developed nations.  This is one of the saddest stories that I’ve heard about the impact of the sequestration because lack of funding is impacting one of the most effective and important federal programs we have.  Kentucky Parents in a small town are learning that their toddlers will not have access to their Head Start program in just a few weeks.

In Henderson County, Kentucky, sequestration has consequences. With Congress showing no signs of breaking its impasse on the massive cuts mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act, the school district found itself looking to cut $1 million in funding. One of the first casualties: a local Head Start program, which will now close in early May 3, about a month earlier than originally scheduled. That means parents are now stuck figuring out where to put their kids for the rest of the year—and how to pay for it.

As one parent told Owensboro’s NBC affiliate, WFIE, “All through school we hear the slogan ‘No Child Left Behind.’ And now, apparently, all the three-year-olds are.”

You can watch the local newstory at the MOJO link.   We’ve heard one tale after showing how elected leadership in this country views our children.  They’re all fine with clumps of cells and want to leave no egg unfertilized, but the minute those eggs have legs and walk and breathe, they don’t give a rat’s ass about their welfare.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Tuesday that the gun control debate doesn’t have anything to do with the families of the Newtown, Conn., shooting victims, and that the only reason those families think it does is because President Barack Obama told them it did.

Eleven family members of Newtown victims were in Washington on Tuesday, meeting privately with senators to urge them to support a forthcoming gun package that would impose tighter background checks, crack down on gun trafficking and enhance school safety measures. Speaking to a handful of reporters, Inhofe said he feels bad for those families because they’re being used as pawns in a political fight.

“See, I think it’s so unfair of the administration to hurt these families, to make them think this has something to do with them when, in fact, it doesn’t,” Inhofe said.

When it was suggested that the families of Newtown victims actually believe the gun debate pertains to them, Inhofe said, “Well, that’s because they’ve been told that by the president.”

A request for comment from a spokesman for Sandy Hook Promise, the organization created by members of the Newtown community in response to shooting, was not immediately returned.

Yes, parents of little US citizens, move along, move along, nothing to see or hear … nothing at all

• A Tennessee woman was shot in the stomach by her 2-year-old child on Sunday. Rekia Kid was sleeping with the toddler and her three-week-old baby when the toddler discovered a Glock 9 mm stored underneath her pillow and discharged the weapon. Kid managed to get out of the house and crawl to a neighbor’s porch where she was found by the neighbor, who told local news “[s]he just kept screaming that she didn’t think she was going to make it, she didn’t think she was going to make it and to please please take care of my children.”

• Josephine G. Fanning was shot and killed Saturday at a Tennessee barbecue when a 4-year-old boy discharged a handgun owned by Fanning’s husband, Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Fanning. Fanning had left the loaded gun “for just a moment” on the bed while he went to retrieve another weapon from a locked gun cabinet.

• A 6-year-old boy was accidentally shot by his 4-year-old playmate in a quiet residential New Jersey area yesterday. The victim later died of his wounds, with the victim’s uncle telling reporters covering the story “This never should have happened. It’s horrible.”

• A 3-year-old died of an accidental self-inflicted gun wound in South Carolina on Tuesday according after finding a gun in an apartment and discharging the weapon. No further details have been released at this time.

Many right wing–and supposedly centrist–politicians are joining in on defunding federal programs that actually do benefit the country in a bizarre case of federal deficit hysteria.   WSJ strumpet Steven Moore–whose credentials as an economist are about as worthy as character actor Ben Stein’s–attacked the $2 million dollar funding of snail research on Bill Maher on Friday night.  An undergraduate science student from Lousiana told him he wasn’t an scientist and shouldn’t be making blanket statements about the worthlessness of research.  He’s not much of an economist either, but that doesn’t stop the WSJ and other places from giving him a platform for spreading propaganda that clearly is unsupported by empirical research and evidence in the field.  But, get this about the snail research.  It’s actually an $876k study but hey, why mention facts when there’s a propaganda opportunity to be had and no one fact checks you ever?   So, here’s the deal.  Snails carry a waterborne disease that’s especially dangerous to children.  It’s called Schistosomiasis and you can get it from swimming in contaminated water.

… (also known as bilharzia, bilharziosis or snail fever) is a collective name of parasitic diseases caused by several species of trematodes belonging to the genusSchistosoma. Snails serve as the intermediary agent between mammalian hosts. Individuals within developing countries who cannot afford proper water and sanitation facilities are often exposed to contaminated water containing the infected snails.^[1]

Although it has a low mortality rate, schistosomiasis often is a chronic illness that can damage internal organs and, in children, impair growth and cognitive development. The urinary form of schistosomiasis is associated with increased risks for bladder cancer in adults. Schistosomiasis is the second most socioeconomically devastating parasitic disease after malaria.^[2]

This disease is most commonly found in Asia, Africa, and South America, especially in areas where the water contains numerous freshwater snails, which may carry the parasite.

The disease affects many people in developing countries, particularly children who may acquire the disease by swimming or playing in infected water.^[2] When children come into contact with a contaminated water source, the parasitic larvae easily enter through their skin and further mature within organ tissues. As of 2009, 74 developing countries statistically identified epidemics of Schistosomiasis within their respective populations

So, I guess it’s not worth any kind of money figuring out possible ways to either reduce or eliminate disease in children.  This is all so the self-absorbed Richie Riches of the US can throw more of their money in oversea bank accounts, I guess.  No other developed country leaves the health, well-being, and education of its children so clearly behind as this one.  While state legislatures all over the country seek to protect the rights of eggs and zygotes, the actual and real children in this country are getting the shaft.