Over the long holiday weekend, children gathered in towns and cities around the country ooh-ing and aah-ing over fireworks, marching in parades, proud of their heritage and proudly waving the American flag. Most of them still believe in the promise of America-a promise reflected in so many of the values and ideals that underlie the founding documents of our nation and the Pledge of Allegiance so many of us learned as children and repeated each morning in school.
But today
the promise of America's Pledge of Allegiance is in jeopardy for millions of
our nation’s children, and right now many of our elected officials are letting
another pledge take precedence. Americans for Tax Reform, the organization headed by Grover Norquist,
created the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” 25 years ago and now “asks every
candidate for elected office on the state and federal level to make a written
commitment to their constituents to ‘oppose and vote against tax
increases.’” Many of our current
Congressional leaders have signed onto this pledge and now seem to believe it
is the only pledge they need to honor. They are so determined and dug in they are willing to default on our
country’s obligations in order to stick to it-and their loyalty to this
no-new-taxes pledge is putting millions of our children and entire nation at
risk.
But what
about those elected leaders’ Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, and to the
republic for which it stands, and to the promise of liberty and justice for
all? Does that pledge still
matter? And if so, how can there be liberty for all our children when our
public education system is condemning so many of them to failure-unable to read
and do math proficiently at grade level in this globalizing competitive
world? How can there be justice
for our nation's youngest citizens when they are the poorest age group in rich
America and have gotten poorer-15.5 million in 2009? And how can there be justice for our children if the
millionaires and billionaires and the richest corporations don't pay anywhere
near their fair share and have reaped hugely disparate benefits from Bush-era
tax cuts, while the nation is mired in debt contributing to the widest gap
between rich and poor ever recorded? How can any member of Congress even consider balancing the budget on the
backs of our babies and children who are losing their homes and all sense of
security about tomorrow?
Our
failure to invest in our children has already led to a deficit in human capital
and companies are troubled by an undereducated workforce that can barely keep
up with business today. If we
don’t fix our education system and prepare all of our children to thrive in the
global economy, America's promise may die forever.
As we
celebrate our strong nation’s independence, let us all pledge to ensure all our
children a more-not less-just land. Let us demand that all our political leaders pledge not to ask children
to sacrifice their hopes and health and food and education while asking for no
sacrifice from powerful billionaires and corporations, who have gained far more
than their fair share.
Marian
Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund.
