|
|
 |
The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small
by Marian Wright Edelman
Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman’s new
book, The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course
for the Next Generation, released this fall, is a call to action for
all Americans to address the urgent needs of the country's youth. The
book is a series of letters to a variety of audiences—educators, faith
leaders, youth, mothers, elected officials and concerned citizens
nationwide that reflect on America’s social and economic progress as
well as our setbacks since Dr. Martin Luther King's death 40 years ago.
Mrs. Edelman challenges all sectors of our nation to step up and take
action at this pivotal moment to ensure a level playing field for the
next generation.
The book is an alarm bell, rousing our nation about the massive number
of children who are cast about in a sea of perils. Thirteen million of
them are poor, 9 million are without health insurance. Many are at risk
of being funneled into the pipeline to prison. Violence stalks them in
schools, universities, shopping malls and on the streets. No child is
untouched by the pollution that fouls our air, water and food. Millions
of children of all races and income groups are growing up without hope
or a sense of moral purpose.
Mrs. Edelman minces no words in the book, charging that we have a child
problem because we have a profound adult problem. She observes, parents
are letting children raise themselves or be raised by television or the
Internet. Children are being shaped by peers and gangs instead of
parents, grandparents and other relatives. Children roam the streets
because no one’s paying enough attention. They go to drug houses that
are always open instead of schools and churches, mosques, and temples
that are too often closed. She presses adults to get their acts together
and stop dropping the ball of responsibility for our children's
well-being and future.
But the book is not a lament of gloom and doom. It is a call to
conscience and to action for everyone in our society to stand up and
reclaim our children, families, communities and moral values. Parents
are children's most important teachers and mentors and she urges them to
embrace a Bill of Responsibilities to steer our children to safe harbor.
Mrs. Edelman says we know what works, we only lack the will to implement
proven practices. America must rebuild the world we hold in trust and
leave it to future generations better than we found it.
Marian Wright Edelman, a graduate of Spelman College and Yale
Law School, began her career in the mid-60s when, as the first Black
woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal
Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi. In l968,
she was counsel for the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C., that
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began organizing before his death. She
founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and
the parent body of the Children's Defense Fund. CDF celebrates its 35th
anniversary this year.
The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course for the
Next Generation, published by Hyperion Books, New York is now
available in bookstores.
|
