Children's Defense Fund editorials & opinion pieces
Clayton...@optilink.optilink.dsccc.com
There are a stack of them, and they are repeating the "15 children killed a
day" claim. Here are my letters to the Santa Rosa (Cal.) Press-Democrat
and the San Francisco Chronicle in response. Feel free to use the data.
You can find more data on this subject in my "Children and Guns" chapter
in _Firing Back_, available at your local bookstore.
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CLAYTON E. CRAMER
xxxx xxxxxxxx xxxx
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-2285
(xxx) xxx-xxxx
Letters to the Editor
The Press-Democrat
Dear Sirs:
E.R. Shipp's article on May 31 tells us why we should all pay attention
to Marian Wright Edelman and the Children's Defense Fund. I can't take
very seriously Ms. Edelman's impassioned pleas for more government
funding when she uses misleading statistics to make her case. Shipp
repeats, as part of a list of other tragedies, that "Fifteen children
are killed by firearms" daily in the U.S.
In 1989, the National Center for Health Statistics published a report
("Firearm Mortality Among Children and Youth") that claimed "3,392
children aged 1-19 years died from firearms-related injuries and
violence." Look carefully at the definition: it includes 18 and 19
year olds, who can make contracts, join the army, vote, and
get married. Those aren't children.
These are all tragedies -- but not the tragedies that Shipp
and Edelman want you to imagine. Some of those deaths
were criminals who attacked the wrong person; in 1991, 27% of
people charged with murder were 19 or under, and it seems likely
that at least some of the dead "children" were killed in self-
defense. Without question, some of these dead "children" were
gang members killed by other gang members.
These are tragedies, but not the sort of tragedies likely to be solved
by Edelman's solutions. Indeed, the case can be made that it is
precisely the "let's throw money at it" solutions that Edelman
champions that have played a part in creating the disasters that
have made inner cities such dangerous places for children. The
same NCHS report that misclassified 18 and 19 year olds as
"children" also reveals something very disturbing for the advocates
of the expanded welfare state: black males 1-19 are murdered or commit
suicide at roughly 2.5x the rate of white males 1-19. This
tragedy in the inner cities has developed at the same time that the
welfare state has dramatically enlarged and unwittingly destroyed
traditional family structures.
Blacks were the primary intended beneficiaries of the Great Society.
The results help to remind us all of the humor in, "I'm from the
government, and I'm hear to help you." I fear that a bit more "help"
from unreconstructed welfare lobbyists like Marian Wright Edelman
could exterminate black America.
Very Truly Yours,
Clayton E. Cramer
======================================================================
CLAYTON E. CRAMER
xxxx xxxxxxx xxxx
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-2285
(xxx) xxx-xxxx
Letters to the Editor
The San Francisco Chronicle
Dear Sirs:
Your editorial repeats Marian Wright Edelman's list of disasters
that require more government spending. I can't take very seriously
Ms. Edelman's impassioned pleas for more government funding when she
uses misleading statistics to make her case. You repeat Edelman's
claim that "every day 15 children are killed by gunfire" in the U.S.
In 1989, the National Center for Health Statistics published a report
("Firearm Mortality Among Children and Youth") that claimed "3,392
children aged 1-19 years died from firearms-related injuries and
violence." Look carefully at the definition: it includes 18 and 19
year olds, who can make contracts, join the army, vote, and
get married. Those aren't children.
These are all tragedies -- but not the tragedies that Edelman wants
you to imagine. Some of those deaths were criminals who attacked
the wrong person; in 1991, 27% of people charged with murder were
19 or under, and it seems likely that at least some of the dead
"children" were killed in self-defense. Without question, some of
these dead "children" were gang members killed by other gang members.
These are tragedies, but not the sort of tragedies likely to be solved
by Edelman's solutions. Indeed, the case can be made that it is
precisely the "let's throw money at it" solutions that Edelman
champions that have played a part in creating the disasters that
have made inner cities such dangerous places for children. The
same NCHS report that misclassified 18 and 19 year olds as
"children" also reveals something very disturbing for the advocates
of the expanded welfare state: black males 1-19 are murdered or commit
suicide at roughly 2.5x the rate of white males 1-19. This
tragedy in the inner cities has developed at the same time that the
welfare state has dramatically enlarged and unwittingly destroyed
traditional family structures.
Blacks were the primary intended beneficiaries of the Great Society.
The results help to remind us all of the humor in the saying, "I'm
from the government, and I'm hear to help you." I fear that a bit
more "help" from unreconstructed welfare lobbyists like Marian Wright
Edelman could exterminate black America.
Very Truly Yours,
Clayton E. Cramer