Thursday, February 19, 2015

Dear Barbara Boxer

In response to a recent press conference held by the current Senator Barbara Boxer, I decided I could not stay silent and still consider myself an active supporter of both equal Civil Rights as well as focusing my career on helping to end the decades of health disparity issues perpetuated by power, money, and many times an unknowing sense of the core issues at hand. Poverty is crippling. It effects not only those trapped within its confines, but also the economy and entire country, constantly hindered by its domino effect to education and life achievements. I encourage everyone to take a deep look at the root causes of poverty, the infinite number of consequences related to it, and the courageous strides that have been made to counteract this in recent times beginning at birth.
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

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