Raising the next generation is a tremendous responsibility. The children born this year will crawl and walk and run and play the same paths we walked as children. One day, decades from now, they will raise little ones of their own, or help care for us in our old age. As a parent, I'm constantly inspired by my kids, and yet I constantly worry for their future. We want each generation to be more prosperous than the last, and it is up to us to make that happen.
Being a parent is hard. It means less sleep, less (or no) personal time, and a lot of needs to fulfil while your own needs go ignored. The products are definitely worth it: watching my kids skip for joy as we walked to view the Christmas lights is a cherished memory I will never forget.
We as a society need to do more. More to support our parents, and our kids, and their future. In today's modern world, we no longer have a "village" in which to raise our children, and our parents don't get nearly as much support as they need. Not all parents can afford to have children, but are forced to through circumstance, legislation, or social pressure. And sometimes accidents happen. Parents get sick or injured, or lose their jobs. Through no fault of their own, children suffer because society doesn't do enough.
Children should never go hungry. Families should never go bankrupt over medical bills of which they have little or no control over. Children should be cared for and educated at least until we give them the full privileges of adulthood.
We as a society should provide free universal healthcare and education, pre-k through college, to every individual of society. If society is going to put restrictions on what women can do with their bodies, then the least society can do is guarantee a basic level of opportunity to every member, no matter the circumstances of their birth or the wealth of their parents.
We should provide substantial financial and other social support to families with children. A refundable child tax credit would help families with children have enough to eat and allow for a joyous childhood.
To those conservatives who say we can't afford it, or that the government shouldn't give handouts, I say: telling women what they can do with their bodies is forcing them into a form of biological and financial slavery through circumstances we deny them control over. The least we can do is help them deal with the consequences of these rules.
We must prioritize a circular economy that remains in balance with our natural ecological systems. Climate change is a real and major threat to our children's future. We cannot ignore it any longer, or claim we'll adapt. We must address the immediate concerns of climate change and focus our society on a generational approach: if we want our children's children's children to be happy and prosperous, we can't continue burning dinosaur corpses of millennia ago and boil the oceans of the next century in the process.
It is up to us to protect our children's future. Not just the children of our blood, but their playmates and peers too, people who will one day be their friends or lovers. People who will work side by side on great works dealing with the ongoing damage being inflicted on our planet. I just hope we rip our heads out of the sand and do something about this horrible state of affairs soon.
Kevin Winter
Longmont resident
