This election is a historic one in many respects, but we should all pause and reflect upon how Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the daughter of two immigrants, will be the first female vice president, the first Black and first Indian American vice president, and her husband with be the first Second Man in the history of this country.

It is ridiculous and unacceptable that it took our nation 244 years to put a woman in one of the top two positions of leadership in this country, but it will be an incredible moment when think about how both Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be sitting behind President Joe Biden at the State of the Union. …

In a just released Us Kids documentary by director Kim A. Synder focused on the high school students that survived the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the failure of adults to protect, see, and actual hear our young people is clear, disturbing, and heart-breaking.

The Stoneman Douglas kids, who were preparing for prom, graduation, summer camps, summer jobs, and college, were left begging, pleading, pushing, urging, and demanding justice for their friends and teachers whose lives were taken right before their eyes on Valentine’s Day.

The documentary grants children their voice in a society that often fails to recognize the right of young people to have their experiences and viewpoints listened to and taken seriously. It also, rightfully, highlights the fact that the vast majority of kids who are victims of gun violence do not happen in school shootings, but by homicides and suicides in communities across this country. …

by Sandy Santana and Bruce Lesley

Public discourse in this election year has largely ignored the plight of our nation’s children. Debates and position platforms have glossed over what the COVID-19 pandemic has meant for their stability and well-being. And despite a new study released last week finding that poverty has grown by six million people in the past three months, with circumstances worsening most for Black people and children, candidates and elected officials have remained largely silent.

Even as the virus has devastated the health and economic well-being of many of our communities, we’ve acted like children are immune — not just to the virus itself, but to the emotional trauma and economic pressures that they and their families are facing. In fact, every aspect of the lives of children are being impacted. There should be no disagreement about prioritizing the health, safety, and well-being of every child. But long before this crisis, few of our nation’s leaders have chosen to put the needs and interests of children front and center. This is despite the fact that the United States has for a very long time been woefully behind other nations when it comes to child welfare. …

The law and the impact it has on the lives of children is critical to those who are:

• abused and neglected,
• victims of a crime,
• caught in a custody battle between parents,
• living in fear because of gun violence,
• concerned about global warming,
• accused of a crime,
• subjected to corporal punishment,
• victims of human trafficking,
• denied access to services by adults that dismiss or fail to address their needs,
• denied self-determination, agency, and inclusion in society by adults that dismiss their voice,
• punished for the actions or status of their parents, or
• discriminated against because of their race, ethnicity, gender (including gender identity and sexual orientation), economic status, disability, religion, immigration status, or age. …

We are failing our children. If we care about the future of our country, we can and must do better.

On a whole range of indicators of child well-being, U.S. children are not doing well. The United States has one of the highest rates of child poverty among Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD) countries, the percentage of uninsured children is rising for the first time in two decades, the U.S. …

We should all be concerned about the state of our democracy in this country. Authoritarianism is on the rise at home and abroad. Civility is gone. Compromise is a lost art. Division is high. We can’t even seem to agree on or accept basic facts and science.

A national focus on how our republic operates and how we can best come together as a country is desperately needed. Efforts to eliminate foreign interference in our elections, embrace inclusion and diversity throughout society, take much needed steps to address race and gender equity, expand and protect voting rights, eliminate gerrymandering, abolish the antiquated Electoral College, listen to and address the needs of children and youth in our society, and other reforms to address threats by authoritarianism and nationalism here and abroad are all worthwhile and critically important to protecting and improving our fragile democracy. …

Our nation’s children deserve the very best we have to offer them. Their best interests should be at the forefront of every decision made by our nation’s leaders at the federal, state, and local levels of government.

To achieve that goal, we have launched with other child advocates a campaign to urge our nation’s leaders to #Commit2Kids. Between now and the November 3 election in less than 100 days, we are challenging candidates and elected officials nationwide to tell us exactly what they will do for our country’s children.

Unfortunately, some politicians pay lip service to the needs of children because, after all, they are cute and polls consistently show that the American people are wildly supportive of improving the lives of children. …

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” — Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

Our country should love, cherish, and care for all of our children, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, disability, income, zip code, or immigration status. About half of children in this country are now white and half are children of color.

As author Maya Angelou…