There is a startling new report just released by the Pan American Development Foundation, reporting that almost 225,000 Haitian children have been forced into child slavery in Haiti as a result of poverty. Most of the children – nearly 2/3 in fact – are young girls, and are subjected to extreme physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. |
Although the plight of these children is apparently commonly known, and is a source of great shame in the Caribbean country founded by a slave revolt, the practice of enslaving children has become widespread. According to the report, nearly half of the children interviewed in just one village (257 total ) were living as slaves. |
Please take a look at this article that I wrote at Civil Rights & Wrongs to find out what you can do to help end youth homelessness in America. Hungry And Homeless: The Daily Struggle Of America’s Youth |
Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Everywhere in America, grocery stores have laid out turkeys, hams, and roast beef. |
Many of you may not know this, but this November is the first-ever National Homeless Youth Awareness Month. To throw some additional light on the disgraceful problem of homelessness in America, I am posting some information here at CRW about how you can get involved in reaching out to homeless youth. |
‘There are over 1,000,000 homeless kids on the streets of America right now! Living, and dying. That’s unacceptable anywhere, and especially in a country like the US that can fix this issue. |
Many of these kids are fleeing homes where they are being physically or sexually abused, only to be preyed upon once they’re on the streets by child traffickers, drug dealers, or pimps. Between 17 and 35% of kids on the streets experience sexual abuse. Read more at civilrightsandwrongs.wordpress.com |
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear a bitterly contested First Amendment case arising out of Miami-Dade County, Florida, and which has come to be known as the “Vamos a Cuba” Case. “Vamos a Cuba,” or “A Visit to Cuba,” is a children’s book at the center of the controversy, which school board officials removed from the school library. |
The ACLU filed suit against the school board claiming that the board’s actions constituted censorship in violation of the 1st Amendment. The U.S. District Court agreed, issuing an injunction commanding the school board to restore the book to the library shelves. The school board then filed an appeal, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with the trial court’s ruling and lifted the injunction. |
Growing up in the southernmost part of Illinois, closer to Arkansas (by a long shot) than to Chicago, I can tell you this kid has got courage to spare. This is only a part of the article. The rest of it is well worth reading. Hats off to the boy’s mother as well. A 10-year-old Arkansas boy name Will Phillips has decided that he cannot in good conscience pledge allegiance to the flag as long as the country for which it stands refuses legal equality to its GLBT citizens. |
That stand has brought young Mr. Phillips anti-gay taunts in the lunch room, but admiration from around the country, reports a Nov. 5 Arkansas Times article. The West Fork School District fifth grader clashed with a substitute teacher for his refusal to stand for the pledge, prompting a call to Will’s mother, Laura Phillips. When the principal acknowledged that Will has the right to refuse to say the pledge, Ms. Phillips asked that her son receive an apology–a request that the principal declined to honor. |
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