The problem is nobody cares about these kids.
Not to dig up old
2020 primary bullshit, but perhaps one of the more heartbreaking moments of the primary to me was the reaction on the left to Kamala Harris'
proposal to expand funding to public schools on the condition the expand after school programs to 6PM:
The rising cost of living in the US, compounded by the decades long stagnation in wages has created an environment where parents are working longer and longer hours. The erosion of social programs in this country, compounded by the social shift away from religious institutions (that previously filled this role) and other forms of communal caregiving has created a situation where not only do these kids have nowhere to go when they're not in school, it's actually much worse: these kids have nowhere to go,
and nobody wants them. This is a reality that we have known about since I was a child, and here we had a major candidate, a former
successful progressive DA and prosecutor for the Bay Area (hmmm, I wonder if this informed her insight at all), proposing major legislation that was
laser targeted at helping these kids and not just throwing more cops at them…and the reaction on the left was to laugh at her for it, criticize the legislation for not being an out-of-the-box perfect solution (when is it ever?), or twisted the intent of the legislation to claim it would put more burden on teachers (the legislation addressed this; it didn't).
Seriously, read the thread on this legislation that floated around on Era at the time. In hindsight, it's incredibly sad.
This isn't intended to be a gotcha or an 11th hour defense of Kamala Harris. The intent here is to point out that when it comes to these kids, the lack of supervision, the lack of
care….we know what the problems are. We know what the solutions are.
What can we do about this? is the wrong question, because we already know the answer: a lot. There's a lot we
could do.
The right question to ask is what are we
willing to do? And the answer to that is fucking tragic.
And it just really sucks to watch the cycle perpetuate over and fucking over again. Because when you operate in these communities, when you have a window into these kids' lives…for every horrific instance of violence and neglect that makes it to national news like what we see here, you see the dozen steps that could have been taken. The dozen ways we as a pubic could have intervened. The signs we could have paid attention to, the funding we could have voted for, the issues we could have prioritized.
And then you realize that nobody cares. Because people in this country do not care about kids until they can be scapegoated or used for tax credits. And until we deal with that? Won't none of this shit change. The consequences of our collective neglect will build up to these horrific tragedies. People will
rightfully and understandably be made afraid. The "More Cops!" button will get pushed. The cycle will repeat.
And I'm just so fucking tired and sad.
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