Two Sad Stories Involving Children

#1, in which Seatbelts Would Have Saved Lives

Yesterday, an ordinary looking minivan blew out a tire and clipped another vehicle. What happened next was horrifying. The van rolled multiple times. It turns out that inside that van were 15 people — in a van that normally seats 8 — only two of whom were wearing seatbelts. Thirteen children were thrown from the vehicle. Ten people were severely injured, five were killed, including a little kid 3 years old. One witness says there were “kids flying everywhere.”

Please, people. Make sure everybody in your vehicle is belted in. If that means taking two vehicles or getting a bigger vehicle, so be it. For that matter, check your tires regularly. This was preventable. The adults in that vehicle had a responsibility to do certain things to keep those kids safe and they failed.

#2, in which Grade School Kids Lack Almost Everything

Every city has a school like Vegas’s Whitney Elementary. In some ways, it’s like any other grade school in Clark County School District, one of the 5 largest school districts in the nation. It’s got a mix of students from all racial backgrounds, although it’s almost half Hispanic. It doesn’t have the best test scores, but the scores could be a lot worse.

However, of their 562 students in 2007-2008, 370 got free school lunches and another 62 got reduced price lunches. The principal estimates that 75% of the 622 current students have experienced homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless. Because most of the families can’t afford much of anything, the school holds monthly birthday parties for all the kids who had a birthday, complete with cake and presents. The school has it’s own food bank, it’s own clothing donation stockpile. Every teacher has a story of a kid who needed help.

Now, say what you want about personal responsibility. These are little kids, all under the age of 12. Not one of them has any control over his or her circumstances. None of them can legally get a job, and frankly society is better off with them learning to read and write than becoming unskilled child laborers. There is a Christmas wish tree from these kids in my office. It will break your freaking heart. There are kids that just want a pair of pants that fits, or maybe a sweater. There are kids who asked for one toy, singular, that I could buy with the kind of money I typically have in my wallet. There is one family that all they want for Christmas is to have electricity!

So if it is in your heart to send something to Whitney Elementary, please do. If instead is in your heart to find and give to your own hometown’s version of Whitney Elementary, that is wonderful too. If all you can send is kind wishes and prayers or maybe spreading the word, it’s better than nothing.

In Closing: the best reason for Cheney to run for President in 2012 is that he thinks we run elections under Gallifreyan rules and won’t let him be extradited to the Hague (is this seriously the best the Republicans got??); The Life of Brian couldn’t be filmed today, and more’s the pity; I guess terrorists only count if they are brown; recycle small electronics with the USPS; yawning is good for you; obligatory item on controlling health insurance costs; Blue Cross BS demonstrates why we need reform now; I’m going to let the economists worry about whether this Dubai mess is a big deal (their Vegas investments notwithstanding) (sorry, a drop of 150 on the Dow doesn’t impress me anymore); WTF is wrong with Africa??; concentration of wealth; the importance of arts education; an a cartoon on commercial and industrial regulation.