A Mouth for the Young

In one of her blogs, Senate OKs Changes to Newborn Screening, my colleague argued over the protection of the parents and their child’s blood to be sampled. She sided that, although government probably has too much to do with our children and that they are being endlessly protected by the adults, that it should not be that big of a deal for the blood of the kids to be used for research.

In accordance to my colleague’s blog post, I agree to what she has to say at some extent. She believes that with or without the parents’ consent the government shouldn’t exactly have to worry about a research including which ever child’s blood they want. I  don’t agree with that. Although they can’t really do much with just a sample of blood from the children, the parents are there to protect their kids from the time they are born, and if that means keeping even a drop of blood from being freely drawn then so be it.

However, I do completely agree that civilians are completely aware for the well- being of others and that is a great sign of unity. Children are helpless when it comes to their rights and having such adults make them have a place in society. They have their own representatives without being able to stand up for themselves. Additionally, she is also thankful for the concern of the government’s presence throughout the life of Texas’ residents. With that, I agree to as well. Regardless of how much the government and government officials may make one angry, they are there to help and have an open ear to the concerns of civilians. That is, however, to a point where they halt in having complete control over society.

Not in Texas. We're Perfect!

While looking over the Austin American- Statesman, I ran into an article by Juan Castillo about poverty, More School-Children in Central Texas Living in Poverty. At first, I didn’t think too much of it; knowing that it is a problem, I didn’t think it was that big of a difficulty in our living area and surrounding areas. However, after reading this article I was caught with my mouth open at the numbers that I was reading and realizing the magnitude of the problems being presented.

Although plenty of people live in luxuries and with no problem to have food in the palm of their hand when they ask for it, there are many other-  specifically children- who are suffering to have a full out plate on their tables. The percentage of children that are living in poverty has increased impressively and it seems that the places that have the most child poverty are those that are extremely near us, around the Austin area. There is no pride in being the second state in the United States to have the highest poverty rate and even less pride to know that this rate is solely among children. More than 40% of the people that are being cared for by the Capital Area Food Bank are children, an astonishing number if you consider those that are being helped by other organizations or those that fail to seek for help.

The situation here seems to be that the problem is hidden. How is it possible that in a city so big, within a state as populous as ours, it isn’t made a major public concern? Why are government officials not appearing to make many regulations to help this rather than worrying about elections or other such insignificant issues?