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It's Time to Speak Out, Give Nation's Kids Better Protectionby Jason Tippitt If children could vote, our society would look radically different than it does today. Gym class would be outlawed. Pizza would be considered a health food. Presidential candidates would name-drop characters from Japanese cartoons. If children could vote, politicians would have to take them seriously, not just drag them out for photo opportunities and heart-tugging words in speeches. Education would take on the same importance as gun rights. If children could vote, they'd say that a parent who rapes his child, an uncle who molests his niece or nephews, is as bad as a stranger who picks children out of a crowd. Or maybe worse. But children can't vote. And so politicians line their pockets and let the environment go to hell. They support the people who can vote and decide that sex crimes are too depressing to be mentioned in campaign speeches. It's up to the adults to speak for them. Step one is to support shelters for women and children who are fleeing domestic violence. The community also supports efforts like the Exchange Club/Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. And well we should. The next step is just getting under way. The National Association to PROTECT Children has launched this year to create what attorney and writer Andrew Vachss calls an "NRA for children." The group will gather ideas for legislation that's pro-family, anti-crime. Its political action committee will lobby for legislation in Congress and state legislatures, and back candidates who support its cause, Democrat or Republican. One of the reasons it's been so hard to make a dent on the child abuse epidemic, Vachss has said in years of interviews, is that no such organization exists. The NRA is there for gun owners. There are scores of environmental groups. Supporters of abortion rights and opponents of abortion both have their groups. But no one's been ready to make children's safety their primary concern, and put their good intentions into political action, until now. You can find out more about the organization at its Web site, www.protect.org. You can read more of Vachss' writings at his Web site, www.vachss.com, if you need convincing. Additionally, here's my challenge to Sens. Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander, and Reps. John Tanner and Marsha Blackburn. And to everyone reading this column. In 1999, a bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would have banned any state laws that made child rapes committed by a biological relative "incest" a lesser offense than the rape of a stranger. The Child Abuse and Enforcement Reform Act never went anywhere. Only one member of Tennessee's delegation sponsored this bill. That was Zach Wamp, the Republican representative from Chattanooga. We call ourselves the Volunteer State, but he was the only one willing to volunteer his name toward this bill protecting children. Our lawmakers have a chance to redeem themselves. The new Congress is in session, and this bill can be revived. And here's where the challenge comes in: I'm a registered Democrat. This shouldn't surprise anybody. But any lawmaker in our delegation who helps bring this bill back to life in Congress will get my vote at the next election. Even if they're Republican. Party affiliation shouldn't matter here. Politics shouldn't matter here. All that matters here is protecting children's innocence, protecting their lives. And I urge you to join me. Write them, call them, fax them, bother them until they pass this bill just to end what shouldn't even be a debate. If children could vote, this would have been settled long ago. But they can't. It's up to us. And if we fail them now, we deserve whatever happens to our nation because of our negligence. © 2003 The Jackson Sun. Reprinted with permission. Jason Tippitt is an assistant city editor with The Jackson Sun. He can be reached by e-mail at jtippitt@jacksonsun.com, by telephone at (731) 425-9629 or toll-free at (800) 372-3922, ext. 629. |
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