Democracy and The Child

Sunday, when I started this blog, it was my intent to focus on a new study with the League of Women Voters’ Education Committee.  I have been invited to chair this important committee.  Why am I doing this at this point in my life?  Why aren’t I just hanging out?  I never learned how to just hang out.  I guess I truly believe and live Marian’s philosophy as quoted.

“I guess If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much.” 

Marian Wright Edelman

But, the more I read and listened about the carnage of Newtown, the more I was pulled back into the value of education and what it means to us in this democracy we live.  How integrated these two subjects are to me.

Here I am, sitting in my peaceful and calm Camelot and trying to digest the horrors of this past week.

“I'm sure I am impatient sometimes. I sure do get angry sometimes. I think it's outrageous how hard it is to get this country to feed its children and to take care of its children, to give them a decent education.” 

Marian Wright Edelman

Indiana’s Governor Pence said he wants a new study to focus on schools, not the state’s guns laws. When pressed, he said he supports the rights of law-abiding Hoosiers to keep and bear arms and will “defend that right.”  There you go - one huge reason I left Indiana with a smile.  I enjoyed working for Governor Evan Bayh who would have had a totally different reaction and response to the tragedy.  I called him to wish his family a happy holiday and I asked him.  He confirmed my belief that he was and is a fine man - a man we needed to stay in the Senate - one of those unique politicians who always worked across the aisle and taught me the art of compromise and negotiation in the legislative process.

Evil walked tall last week in Connecticut, but evil should not be confused with what follows.  You won’t see any pure evil in any room when legislators come down to hard choices over the budget for mental health programs in the next legislative session, but if you want to personify it, rest assured evil will be in the room keeping an eye on things. Most everyone will mean well and there will be valid arguments for spending more or less, but down the line somewhere one decision will have a little better or worse impact than another.

This coming January, funding for mental illness research and services, as well as housing programs are at risk of being subject to an across-the-board cut of as much as 8.4 percent. This “sequester” was put in place last year as part of the Budget Control Act. These critical federal investments in mental illness research, services, housing programs are all part of the “non-defense discretionary”.  

Let’s pivot to education and the child.  One of the major tasks that education must perform in a democratic society is the proper preparation of young citizens for the roles and responsibilities they must be ready to take on when they reach maturity.

Our committee will study what the current landscape is of early childhood development, education, and quality in our area.  Our committee will start by researching the 3 A’s of early education.  Availability, Affordability, and Accessibility.  These were the words governing my work in Indiana for so many years.  What goes around - comes around.  I believe that ‘education is for democracy’.  I also believe that high quality early childhood programs offer positive economic development. The following site offers good information on how early childhood development impacts economic development.

Early childhood development: Economic development with a high public return

A Rolnick, R Grunewald - The Region, 2003 - datacenter.spps.org

Why Investments in Early Childhood Work?

The data show that the greatest challenges facing our country – from school dropout rates, to crime to rising health-care costs, to the necessity of competing in the global marketplace – can only be met by focusing on the development of all our children, beginning at birth.

To the Ounce of Prevention Fund, the "achievement gap" is not a metaphor. It is a social outcome that we can see and measure. Research shows that the achievement gap appears long before children reach kindergarten – in fact is can become evident as early as age nine months. And at-risk children who don't receive a high-quality early childhood education are:

• 25% more likely to drop out of school

• 40% more likely to become a teen parent

• 50% more likely to be placed in special education

• 60% more likely to never attend college

• 70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime

I have always been drawn to the ways and needs and dreams of children.  I started The Stein Group upon retirement from my place in Indiana government.  As an analyst, I was responsible for the production of reports and more reports, most of which settled on government office shelves gathering that dust you always hear about.  That always troubled me in that so much research, funds and time went into producing these reports.  I wanted The Stein Group to bring

those reports and findings to life and develop policy for children.

I remember going to the Secretary of State’s office with my husband and signed the paperwork to start a corporation.  There I was, now the president of a corporation.  A nonprofit, independent children's research and policy organization.  Those were great days.  

Take a few minutes and click on my Children’s Issues blog.  I started writing this blog while in Indiana government.  The situations are the same - I hope the values are the same. 

Children's Issues - a blog by Carole Stein and Friends

Child Care: It's Good Business. The Indiana Tool-Kit for Employers

All these programs and policies will be evaluated and reviewed as we

start our study here in Palo Alto and surrounding communities.  Please join us at this critical time for our children.

Take Time to Think. 

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” 

Carl Sandburg 

I have been very fortunate in my life to have made some healthy, wise and valuable choices.  The obvious of course - my husband and children.  But. then there were those choices that required more compromise and negotiating with husband and family as to time spent.  These are interesting words - ‘time spent.’  An interesting quote from a master.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."  

George Bernard Shaw

Compromise and negotiation are also interesting words.   ‘Compromise is a basic negotiation process in which both parties give up something that they want in order to get something else they want more.’  This definition has been an absolute for me.  I knew as a young married that I needed the freedom to express myself while at the same time being committed to building a quality marriage filled with love, fun and productivity. 

These choices were easier than I would have thought.  I learned what is meant by sharing your beliefs in marriage.  It was early in our marriage that I started to read about the advantages of equal partnership.  I studied the writings of researcher John Gottman and I found my comfort zone for life.  One of John’s beliefs was that husbands who accept their wives’ influence are four times less likely to divorce or have an unhappy marriage.   We bought into that - it worked for us.  

Jerry was wise enough to know what the ‘equal rights amendment’ meant even before I sucessfully lobbied for the passage.  You know the overused saying, ‘the happy wife is a happy life.‘   It all centers around respect for those differences.  Agreed?

One area in which we always agreed and that was our sense and love for the spirit of democracy.  In 1980, an article was written in The Indianapolis Star about my professional volunteerism career - I was asked how I knew Jerry was the right man for me and without hesitation responded, ‘he was a democrat and a feminist and a great dancer.’

Last week, I picked up the NYTimes to read my favorite journalist - David Brooks.  He was writing about just that - democracy and politics.  He wrote:

“We live in an anti-political moment, when many people -- young people especially - think politics is a low, nasty, corrupt and usually fruitless business. It's much nobler to do community service or just avoid all that putrid noise.”

He went on to say.  “I hope everybody who shares this anti-political mood will go out to see "Lincoln." The movie portrays the nobility of politics in exactly the right way.  It shows that you can do more good in politics than in any other sphere. You can end slavery, open opportunity and fight poverty. But you can achieve these things only if you are willing to stain your own character in order to serve others -- if you are willing to bamboozle, trim, compromise and be slippery and hypocritical. The challenge of politics lies precisely in the marriage of high vision and low cunning. The hero has a high moral vision, but he also has the courage to take morally hazardous action in order to make that vision a reality.”

This article gave me clarity as to why I loved politics - He made it very clear to me.  My career in politics started with The Children’s Defense Fund and the beautiful Marianne Wright Edelman and ended up with a decade of service to Indiana governors. I never felt helpless in the face of obstacles.  It was always that challenge I loved and being a tiny speck on that great stage still remains a love.  Just being  that small speck in reaching success for California’s voting for education funding was a wow for me.  My government friends in Indiana called and asked ‘were you involved in that vote?’

This Brooks’ article gave me some time to think about who through the years had the greatest influence on me - whether or not I was aware at the time or not, at this moment in time I can look back and remember.

Who immediately comes to mind was Lyndon Johnson.  It was during his administration that I served as President of the National Council of Jewish Women in Indianapolis.  Our organization accepted the challenges he presented through the War on Poverty.  We had an opportunity to advocate and educate in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent.  Johnson believed in expanding the government's role in education and health care as poverty reduction strategies. The legacy of the War on Poverty policy initiative remains in the continued existence of such federal programs as Head Start, Volunteers in Service to America and Job Corps.

And then for me, came John F. Kennedy - Oh, I was a Camelot devotee.  I remember attending a Boston College medical school dance and there was this gorgeous young Congressman coming to the microphone.  My Dad and I shared a love for politics so I immediately called him in New York and I remember my words, ‘I just met a future President.’ So lucky were we to have him albeit so little time.

The term "Camelot" was applied by ‘Jackie’ Kennedy.  Camelot refers to the seat of the court of the legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and a place or time of idyllic happiness. She described the years of her husband's presidency as an American Camelot, a period of hope and optimism in U. S. history, and asked that his memory be preserved. 

His Presidency was cut short right before our eyes but his accomplishments served to set a valuable framework for progress.

For me, his call for Americans to serve their country has remained an inspiring and memorable appeal.  It was this call that gave structure to my adult careers.  He gave us the Peace Corps, a way for volunteers to travel overseas to make real differences in the lives of real people.   Laws were put in place to end segregation in interstate travel facilities.  He issued an executive order prohibiting discrimination in the sale or lease of housing that was financed by federally guaranteed loans or owned by the federal government.  Great moves in such limited time. 

John Kennedy reminded us that the arts are an essential part of life.  At his inauguration he asked Robert Frost to read a poem, and invited more than 50 of the country's outstanding writers, artists and composers to attend the ceremonies.  Bill Clinton, even as Governor of Arkansas, has expressed his belief that each child conceals an original and passionate voice and that by offering the arts freely to every child everywhere, "we invest in our future as a country."  Maya Angelou, at Bill Clinton's request, was the first poet since Robert Frost to read at a Presidential inauguration.

For me, my time with him was indeed Camelot - I see it every time I watch “West Wing” and now with the new “Newsroom.” 

I had just came off the ‘Lincoln’ movie high and I started looking for similarities between Lincoln and Kennedy.  So here goes:

Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy were two of the most well-known presidents that the United States of America ever had. Not that too many US presidents ever passed without a mention, but Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were still the most famous, particularly due to their personalities, their policies and their assassinations. The similarities too are unnerving with some people suggesting that perhaps Kennedy was the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln! This claim may be quite far-fetched, but there is no denying the fact that there were some rather strange similarities between the lives of both these men.

Both Lincoln and Kennedy studied law and were associated with the civil rights movements during their respective presidencies.  Both the presidents served in the military before entering politics.  Lincoln was elected to the House of Representatives in 1846, while Kennedy was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946.  Lincoln was elected president in 1860, while Kennedy was elected in 1960.  Lincoln and  Kennedy both lost a son while serving as presidents. Both the presidents had 4 children, but two died before reaching their teens.  Look at the similar datings for each event. 

Such intersections, regardless of generational divides and offered by presidents via presidents make such a study, although short worth the time.