http://www.mercurynews.com/my-town/ci_27552836/emeryville-sen-barbara-boxer-slams-anti-vaccination-parents
Dear Senator Boxer,
I am a long time constitute of yours; casting my vote by
your name since I first could even vote. I work endlessly in my career with a
wide variety of populations. In the past decade however I have been engrained
in racial disparity work and decreasing health disparities particularly within
Maternal Child Health, Much of this work has focused around access to a high
quality of care, creating a continuity of care, and engaging with and
contracting with Head Start offices as well as other types of CBO's, Foundations, and non-profits.
Head Start is an amazing program, performing to erase the
damage of childhood poverty and the unfortunate domino effect to later
educational and life goals. Head Start does this by specifically serving the
population most at risk. This population does not have a choice for access for
either early care or preschool. Early Head Start as well as Head Start that has
shown to lift these children up and increase their entrance scores and skills
for kinder as well as later grades.
I was disappointed by the statement made, "We're not
forcing anybody to get vaccinated...if you want to get into Head Start and you
don't want to get vaccinated, bye, bye, go somewhere else." Our economy is
finally in rebound. Underneath our current president, programs such as Head
Start, Healthy Start, Nurse Family Partnership, and after school programs have
flourished and expanded. The sole focus of these programs is to ensure, as many
other countries do, that children within the United States are properly
attached, cared for, and educated from early on. These programs will create a
positive ripple effect within our country.
However, mandating entrance to these programs around
parental choice and stating they should just go elsewhere is power and
prejudice at its worst. I stand strong for freedom to speech, freedom of
choice, and the simple tenets of beliefs around those items. How can we in one
breath state the government has no right to come into our uterus as a woman
because it is our choice while many claim abortion is not for the greater good,
condoning murder by allowing it but now stand tall and state that children who
need access to high quality care not be allowed to do it simply because a
parent has made a choice we may not agree with?
Daycare costs continue to spiral for even middle class
families. Single and both parent households are forced to work and find care
for their children within our current state of economy. Those who cannot afford
private care within their homes then seek out high quality options such as Head
Start to ensure the safety of their child as well as the best likelihood for
success in later life; to climb out of the grips of poverty. Making them choose
between a personal choice and access to care is force. It is an abuse of power
and makes me sad to call myself a democrat. Regardless of our thoughts to their
beliefs, we as Americans are entitled to the freedom of our thoughts and practice.
Anything that interferes with that, is simply an abuse of power, fracturing the
civil rights of families who have no where else to go. We begin to go down a
slippery slope of what the government constitutes is for the greater good vs.
what we have founded American upon. We must look upon our past, learn, and not
forget so we can move forward remembering that we as a country must work
together to find solutions that may not be loved by all but support all
equally. Let us not forget what a wise man once said so we can prevent the
further displacement of our party and giving fuel to the fire of others,
"“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has
no choice but to become an outlaw.” --Nelson Mandela
