Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved

95 Dinner address A PORTRAIT OF AT-RISK CHILDREN TIPPER GORE 1200 South Oakcrest Road Arlington, Virginia 22202 HG. Wells wrote, "We live in a society full of preventable disorders, preventable diseases, and preventable pain, of harshness and stupid, unpremeditated cruelties." It was an observation particularly apt for our time. As I travel around the country advocating for children, I am constantly reminding audiences that life is tough for kids. ChUdren are at risk of being lost to society as productive and happy individuals. They simply cannot achieve their potential if they have social, emotional, and physical health problems. The United States should be setting an international standard for the health and well-being of children. Yet by many markers we trail most other industrialized societies. The poverty in some of our urban areas rivals that in nonindustrialized nations. Confronted with this harsh reality, how can we continue to look the other way? Where is our outrage? The foundation and stability of American society are at stake. Today's children are tomorrow's citizens, workers, and parents. Childhood should be a time for joy and optimism. For too many, childhood is deadly. While many Americans still find it hard to believe, you know better than I the real horrors that children face. They are reflected in the statistics of poverty, hunger, infant mortality, and disease. They are reflected in the words of a homeless eight-year-old boy.1 When our baby die we start to sit by the window. We just sit and sit all wrapped up quiet in old shirts an' watch pigeons. That pigeon she fly so fast She move nice. A real pretty flier. She open her mouth and take in the wind. We just spread out crumbs, me and my brother. And we wait. Sit and wait, there under the window sill. She don't even see us till we slam down the window. And she break. She look with one eye. She don't die right away. We dip her in, over and over, in the water pot we boils on the hot plate. We wanna see how it be to die slow like our baby die. His brother was four years old. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Vol. 2, No. 1, Summer 1991 96_________________A Portrait of At-Risk Children___________________ Poverty What is the face of poverty and hunger in the United States? It is the face of a child. One out of five children in the United States is poor. For children under age 18, the poverty rate, 19.6 percent, is the highest of any age group.2 Children younger than six constitute the largest group of poor in the country. Minorities make up the largest segment of the poor; half of all black children under six, 40 percent of Hispanic children, and 17 percent of white children are poor.3 Every day for them is a struggle. They are placed at risk for crime, drug abuse, disease, and mental illness—which are likely to adversely affect their entire lives and the lives of those around them (not to mention American taxpayers). Even though poverty has remained at a near steady rate of 13 percent during the 1980s, the real gap between rich and poor has increased. Common sense has been ratified by the recent census which shows that the rich have become richer and the poor poorer. An economic downturn could increase the already staggering number of individuals below the poverty line. Some people blame the poor for their own poverty; this only adds to their suffering because they live in society that alienates them. Any dreams of success have turned into nightmares of despair. Their children are blamed for social ills for which they are not responsible. Hunger and homelessness The increase in hunger and homelessness became more visible throughout the last decade. Why? For one thing, there is a lack of decent, affordable housing. In fact, government support for low-income housing has been cut by 80 percent in the last decade. People of modest means are spending increasing amounts of their income on rent. One setback in employment or healtii means whole families on...