Is opposing the war enough for our children's future?

AS WAR BEGINS, there are many good people who will withdraw into indifference, taking with them false comfort in having been members of the coalition of the unwilling. They'll hang up their ideals, put away their enthusiasm, and close the lid on their indignation.

However, it is not enough just to have been opposed to this war. This is only the beginning. While we cannot undo what has been done—the ships have sailed—we must now take steps to assure that from this day forward war will never again be "one of our finest traditions".

If nations have a lifetime, America is in its adolescence. Like a typical teenager, we are a nation obsessed with money and possessions, celebrities and sports. Our national friends and enemies change as often as when we were in middle school. We care more about what's in and who's out than about improving our education and developing our goals. Quite frankly, we'd rather be watching television or playing video games, drinking or doing drugs.

Thankfully, not all teenagers are typical, and not all Americans behave as adolescents. To all those who object both to this war and to our present arrested development, I propose that we unite behind a single purpose: To see our nation mature into adulthood. At this tipping point in our history, it is imperative if we are to advance as a society.

The advance to maturity will begin when our nation views social, economic, and political issues almost solely from the perspective of what is best for our children. Begging forgiveness, I take an enormous liberty in modifying the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by a single word: "We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a children-oriented society".

This radical philosophical shift in our national way of thinking must be accompanied by an equally radical restructuring of how we search for solutions: We must address not the consequences of problems, but the problems themselves.

A homeless boy living with his family in abandoned warehouses dies from lead poisoning. Physicians, politicians, and the public cry out for universal lead screening. Why does no one cry out for universal guarantees of safe housing, secure food sources, and unrestricted access to health care for all children?

In this the most economically developed country in the world, millions of children are uninsured and receive little or no preventive medical or dental care. This is to say nothing of the millions more undocumented children in our midst.

Our infant mortality rate ranks an abysmal 28th internationally. An astounding one-fourth of American three year-olds have not received complete immunizations. Millions of our children are suffering mental and physical malnutrition resulting from chronic hunger and chronic neglect and abuse. In these difficult economic times, the numbers are growing.

Making children our focal point can tie together the many fragmented and divergent interest groups into a common bind. On issues as wide-ranging as the environment, education, energy policy, and foreign affairs, every decision can be framed with the simple question: What is best for our children?

Like a typical teenager, our nation often behaves as if invincible, and able to live forever. With maturity, however, comes the realization that we live forever through our children, and our children's children. With maturity even childless adults often understand that their immortality rests upon making the world a better place for generations to follow.

With maturity, our society will come to realize that what is best for our children are greater opportunities for a better life. Children are one-fourth of our population, and all of our future. Every child we're leaving behind is, in the final sense, one more wasted opportunity to improve that future.

Todd Huffman, M.D.
Pediatrician
Eugene, OR

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