| It's Time to Speak Out, Give Nation's Kids Better Protection |
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Jason Tippitt
Originally published in the Jackson Sun, January 12, 2003
If children could vote, our society would look radically different than
it does today. Gym class would be outlawed. Pizza would be considered a
health food. Presidential candidates would name-drop characters from
Japanese cartoons.
If children could vote, politicians would have to take them
seriously, not just drag them out for photo opportunities and
heart-tugging words in speeches. Education would take on the same
importance as gun rights.
If children could vote, they'd say that a parent who rapes his child,
an uncle who molests his niece or nephews, is as bad as a stranger who
picks children out of a crowd. Or maybe worse.
But children can't vote. And so politicians line their pockets and let
the environment go to hell. They support the people who can vote and
decide that sex crimes are too depressing to be mentioned in campaign
speeches.
It's up to the adults to speak for them. Step one is to support
shelters for women and children who are fleeing domestic violence. The
community also supports efforts like the Exchange Club/Carl Perkins
Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. And well we should.
The next step is just getting under way. The National Association to
PROTECT Children has launched this year to create what attorney and
writer Andrew Vachss calls an "NRA for children." The group will gather
ideas for legislation that's pro-family, anti-crime. Its political
action committee will lobby for legislation in Congress and state
legislatures, and back candidates who support its cause, Democrat or
Republican.
One of the reasons it's been so hard to make a dent on the child abuse
epidemic, Vachss has said in years of interviews, is that no such
organization exists. The NRA is there for gun owners. There are scores
of environmental groups. Supporters of abortion rights and opponents of
abortion both have their groups.
But no one's been ready to make children's safety their primary
concern, and put their good intentions into political action, until
now.
You can find out more about the organization at its Web site,
www.protect.org. You can read more of Vachss' writings at his Web site,
www.vachss.com, if you need convincing.
Additionally, here's my challenge to Sens. Bill Frist and Lamar
Alexander, and Reps. John Tanner and Marsha Blackburn. And to everyone
reading this column.
In 1999, a bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives
that would have banned any state laws that made child rapes committed
by a biological relative "incest" a lesser offense than the rape of a
stranger. The Child Abuse and Enforcement Reform Act never went
anywhere.
Only one member of Tennessee's delegation sponsored this bill. That was
Zach Wamp, the Republican representative from Chattanooga. We call
ourselves the Volunteer State, but he was the only one willing to
volunteer his name toward this bill protecting children.
Our lawmakers have a chance to redeem themselves. The new Congress is
in session, and this bill can be revived. And here's where the
challenge comes in:
I'm a registered Democrat. This shouldn't surprise anybody. But any
lawmaker in our delegation who helps bring this bill back to life in
Congress will get my vote at the next election. Even if they're
Republican.
Party affiliation shouldn't matter here. Politics shouldn't matter
here. All that matters here is protecting children's innocence,
protecting their lives. And I urge you to join me. Write them, call
them, fax them, bother them until they pass this bill just to end what
shouldn't even be a debate.
If children could vote, this would have been settled long ago. But they
can't. It's up to us. And if we fail them now, we deserve whatever
happens to our nation because of our negligence.
© 2003 The Jackson Sun. Reprinted with permission.
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