To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Calling Out Taking Food From Our Already Hungry Children As Child Abuse
We demand and here petition that our Senate and House of Representatives immediately stop the abuse and treat the epidemic of hunger in this country caused by the economic recession, as the national emergency it is, and respond as we do with the national emergencies caused by hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., by pouring funds into correcting the situation, including by creating jobs, including by using monies from our Defense/Homeland security coffers. That is, doing whatever it takes to fulfill our obligation as adults, our intrinsic role as guardians of the children, to see to it that our children have food to eat.
Why is this important?
We, the undersigned, do not condone the intense brainwashing by our media and congress to frame the current threat by government to take food away from the one in four American children who already suffer hunger, and the chronic disabling effects of hunger, as a notion that belongs in the domain of Republican-Democrat viewpoints. The threat of increasing hunger in populations who already don’t have enough food to eat, is not one of political viewpoint, but instead belongs in the domain of child abuse. When a parent neglects to feed her children, we do not consider this her ‘viewpoint’; we call the child abuse hotline and get the child into a setting where the child’s basic needs can be met. Were a parent to keep a child so hungry that the child suffered pain, headaches, nausea, and couldn’t concentrate in school, we would all be outraged at the sadistic level of abuse. Our government, knowing almost a quarter of American children are suffering this level hunger, taking away what little food these families have, is an act of child abuse of the most devastating and sinister order.
Clearly, funds are not the issue, as we somehow have $50,000 per year per (healthy) inmate (more for those needing medical attention) to imprison individuals who resort to stealing, but somehow are supposed to buy the brainwashing that we don’t have monies to provide $4.50/day for our poorest persons for food stamps. In addition, economists estimate that every dollar of SNAP benefit, adds $1.79 of economic benefit to the community. More than 80% of SNAP households have one or more members employed, with 87% of recipients living in households with children, elderly, or disabled persons. The more children get sick from hunger the more the low-wage earner has to take off from work resulting in job loss. Due to the economic crash, between 2007 & 2011 unemployment increased by 96% & SNAP by 70%. The average time on SNAP is 9 months as families find their way out from beneath the poverty line.
We will not participate in condoning cutting programs that feed those suffering hunger as one of political party affiliation, and here join in calling it out as the child abuse (also elder abuse and abuse of the disabled) it is. We demand and here petition that our Senate and House of Representatives immediately stop the abuse and treat the epidemic of hunger in this country caused by the economic recession, as the national emergency it is, and respond as we do with the national emergencies caused by hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., by pouring funds into correcting the situation, including by creating jobs, including by using monies from our Defense/Homeland security coffers. That is, doing whatever it takes to fulfill our obligation as adults, our intrinsic role as guardians of the children, to see to it that our children have food to eat.
Clearly, funds are not the issue, as we somehow have $50,000 per year per (healthy) inmate (more for those needing medical attention) to imprison individuals who resort to stealing, but somehow are supposed to buy the brainwashing that we don’t have monies to provide $4.50/day for our poorest persons for food stamps. In addition, economists estimate that every dollar of SNAP benefit, adds $1.79 of economic benefit to the community. More than 80% of SNAP households have one or more members employed, with 87% of recipients living in households with children, elderly, or disabled persons. The more children get sick from hunger the more the low-wage earner has to take off from work resulting in job loss. Due to the economic crash, between 2007 & 2011 unemployment increased by 96% & SNAP by 70%. The average time on SNAP is 9 months as families find their way out from beneath the poverty line.
We will not participate in condoning cutting programs that feed those suffering hunger as one of political party affiliation, and here join in calling it out as the child abuse (also elder abuse and abuse of the disabled) it is. We demand and here petition that our Senate and House of Representatives immediately stop the abuse and treat the epidemic of hunger in this country caused by the economic recession, as the national emergency it is, and respond as we do with the national emergencies caused by hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., by pouring funds into correcting the situation, including by creating jobs, including by using monies from our Defense/Homeland security coffers. That is, doing whatever it takes to fulfill our obligation as adults, our intrinsic role as guardians of the children, to see to it that our children have food to eat.