My parents both went back to college in their late thirties, when I was about four years old. At some point when I was in high school, my mom found a notebook she'd used in college, and gave it to me for school. I used it to write poetry and make lists of things I needed to do, like visit "fool.com".

I found it again today, and started ripping out all the pages of useless crap I wrote in it, when I came across an essay my mom had written. I believe this dates from the time I was in Headstart, because that was the year she got really into children's rights. (I remember her going to Washington, D.C. for four days; I could have sworn it was months.) The presidential election she refers had to have been the 1988 election.

On December 10, I attended a day-long conferencein Seattle, entitled "Who Speaks for the Children?" The answer to that question is heartbreaking. Many of us stood to speak for the children--but few, it seems, are listening.

In a country that is willing to spend billions to put weapons in space, children are hungry; children are without a safe, decent place to live; children are dying for lack of proper medical care.

It is very painful seeing our children suffer the lack of basic necessities. It is so painful, we sometimes feel we must medicate ourself to stop the pain. (Result--alcohol and drug abuse.) It is so painful that we sometimes lash out at those closest to us. (Result--child abuse and neglect.)

Our country is suffering from a disease called poverty. It is time we stopped blaming the victims of that disease and started looking for a cure. The Seattle hearing was one of 5 local hearings which will funnel into a National hearing in February.