Military eats its cake, and kids get crumbs

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"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Navy has to hold a bake sale to buy a ship."

This slogan came out of a movement for expanded childcare in San Francisco in 1973. It was picked up and used all over the country because it was a good slogan at that time and is even more to the point now.

In 1981, 48.6 percent of total federal funds went to the military budget; in 1986, 56.5 percent of CINCINNATI-About 100 supporters of Americans Against Abortion (AAA) picketed the Margaret Sanger Center operated by Planned Parenthood on Dec. 28. They held "memorial services" for eight decaying black and gray late-term fetuses displayed in open coffins.

When 50 members of the Freedom of Choice Coalition objected to the sickening attempt to harass clinic staff and patients, they were told the office would be destroyed. One pro-choicer shouted, "What are you going to do, firebomb us?"

The answer to that question, on Dec. 30, resulted in $75,000 in arson damage to both the Sanger clinic and the Women's Health Care Center, a private clinic owned by Dr. Martin Haskell, located a few blocks away.

The screaming bigots and religious terrorists had been charged up by a rally on Dec. 27, when the Rev. Jerry Stone inflamed the faithful to "answer to God's law, not the corrupt laws of this government."

City Councilman Kenneth Blackwell also addressed the rally. While AAA likes total federal funds will be used for the military budget. That leaves dry crumbs for education and for the health and welfare of our children at a time when statistics point to an increasing need for federal funds.

The facts of family life in the United States in the 1980s are far different from those old TV reruns of stereotyped families such as "Father Knows Best" and "Ozzie and Harriet."

Here are some of the real facts:

In 1980 alone, there were over 1 million pregnancies among wo -Supreme Court in 1983.

In March, abortion rights for minors will be limited by a new Ohio law requiring parental notification before receiving an abortion. Kathy Helmbock, president of the Ohio National Organization for Women (NOW), noted, "This bill punishes young women for being pregnant...It's ironic. It's saying she's too immature to make a rational decision about abortion but is mature enough to take on parenthood." The dual firebombings, the fetal burial ordinance, and the parental notification law have galvanized feminists and civil libertarians in a renewed effort to defend abortion rights.

Activists here will be engaged in a wide variety of right-to-choose activities. These include fundraising to rebuild the firedamaged clinics, helping to provide escort service for women seeking abortions who are harassed at the clinic doors, and publicizing the NOW-sponsored March for Women's Lives—which will take place in Washington, D.C., on March 9. men under the age of 20. One study predicts that 40 percent of girls who are now 14 years old will become pregnant before the age of 20.

One out of three white children and three out of four Black children will live at least part of their childhood in single-parent households. The number of children living with a single mother has increased by 500 percent since 1970 alone.

Most schoolchildren have a working mother. In fact, even among pre-schoolers, well over half of all mothers are work - inggenerally for the same reason that men work. They need the money. Yet a lack of childcare is preventing an estimated 1.7 million women from seeking jobs.

Over 13.5 million children are now growing up in proverty. Since 1975, 1.4 million families have become poor, and in the last three years 2 million children have slipped into poverty. Since 1980, families have lost over $170 billion in purchasing power-an average of $1400 per family.

While President Reagan cries "crocodile" tears about the "unborn," he is attacking the alreadyborn children of this country. He is robbing them of their health and childhood in a brutal and vengeful fashion.

What is needed is a "Star Wars" program for children, a war against poverty and disease. A war must be waged against the Democrats and Republicans who take our tax monies and use them to make weapons and to provide superprofits for the capitalist class this country.

Quality childcare should be as available to all children as are public schools. Childcare centers should be in the already-existing school system with qualified teachers with early-childhood teaching credentials.

After-school centers with remedial and recreation teachers for school-age children should be provided in every elementary school. This would put an end to the latch-key life where young children are left to shift for themselves while their parents work.

This is not a dream. At one time we did not have kindergarten for pre-school children. Parents fought for it, and now it is available for all public school children. We can do that for childcare centers.

Human rights come first, not profits. A massive fight to change the social system in this country is urgently necessary. It can be done.

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borde Socialist Action/Bill O'Kain