Speech by Bill Bradley at Para Los Ninos 
   
    Do you remember the children's game called
    "Telephone"? 

    One child leans over and whispers a secret into the ear
    of his neighbor. Something like, "Johnny has a crush on
    Susie. Pass it on." 

    You have to lean in close and really listen. It's a game
    that seems so innocent and old-fashioned in this age of
    pulsing videogames and compact disk players and
    virtual reality. But children still love whispered secrets. 

    I have been traveling the length and breadth of America
    for thirty years. And I have been listening to what
    Americans are saying. It's not a secret that people these
    days are worried about their children. 

    Once, such worries were just whispers, and I had to lean
    in close to hear them. But today, those concerns are
    loud and clear, and it is impossible not to hear them. 

    The concerns cut across all colors and all
    socio-economic groups. I've heard them from wealthy
    parents in California, from a single mother in New
    Jersey, from a clergyman in Denver, and from a
    postman in Chicago. Polls show that a majority of
    Americans think that getting kids off to the right start
    should be our number one national priority. 

    That's not a whisper; it's a shout. 

    Even at a time of unparalleled prosperity, a time when
    we should be living in a Golden Age of childhood in
    America, people are worried about tomorrow. How will
    my child turn out? In the media these days, children are
    depicted either as victims or predators. Parents look
    into their children's eyes and say to themselves, "Which
    one is mine?" 

    There are unmistakable reasons that people are
    worried. The statistics are not a secret, but they are a
    scandal. There are fourteen million children -- one out of
    four -- in this country who live in poverty. Two million of
    them right here in California. These statistics do not
    whisper to us; they cry out in shame. 

    One in seven American children face a multitude of
    family-related risks that put them in danger. Single
    parents. Poverty. Lack of health insurance. Welfare.
    Parents with no high school education. Nearly a third of
    those children -- 30% -- are African American children.
    Another 25% of them are Hispanic. In California alone,
    there are 1.5 million children -- more than half of them
    black or Hispanic -- who are at risk. The face of
    children's poverty in America today is a mournful
    mosaic. 

    These numbers are made even more intolerable by the
    fact that they come at a time of economic well being.
    After seven years of the first two-term Democratic
    administration since Franklin Roosevelt, the percentage
    of American children living in poverty has barely
    changed. After seven years of economic growth, there
    are still as many children living in poverty as there were
    after twelve years of Republican administrations. 

    America leads the world in its number of millionaires
    and billionaires, but we rank 17th in our effort to lift
    children out of poverty. That's the lowest among
    industrial nations. We are 18th in rates of infant mortality
    -- behind countries like Germany, Japan and Great
    Britain. We are dead last in protecting our children from
    gun violence. 

    Pass it on. 

    There is often something missing when we talk about
    children these days. So often we talk about children as
    though they were little autonomous beings off in a corner
    by themselves. Too often we speak of children without
    speaking of the people who are most central to their
    lives, their closest caregivers, their protectors; too often
    we speak of children without speaking of their parents. 

    And that is a problem. For you cannot talk about most
    children without talking about their parents. And you
    cannot talk about helping children without first helping
    their parents. You cannot separate one from the other. 

    Today, despite seven years of prosperity, millions of
    parents are holding down several jobs just to make ends
    meet. Two-thirds of our children experience parental
    care as a hurried effort between too much work and too
    little sleep. Parents, rich and poor, suffer from "time
    poverty." Nearly 60% of the nation's mothers with
    pre-school children are working. Nearly a fifth of our
    children are being raised by a single parent who lives
    below the poverty line. 

    These parents are all of us. A mother who is a corporate
    vice president who only sees her child for a rushed
    bedtime story at night. A father who works a day job and
    a night job and sees his children only when he is
    exhausted on Sunday. A single mother who works long
    hours just to afford childcare for her children. 

    People at the top of the ladder and people at the bottom
    are united by the same frustrations, the same worries,
    the same concerns. Technology races on, we move at
    the speed of light, but our children are becoming a blur.
    Everywhere I look these days I see decent people who
    are struggling against odds that test the best and
    strongest among us. 

    It's not supposed to be this hard. 

    That's what Donna Reed, from Memphis, Tennessee,
    thought as she struggled to raise her two daughters on
    her own. After her divorce, she moved into a small
    apartment with her mother. She attended the University
    of Memphis full-time and worked another a full-time job
    from three till eleven at night. She taught her daughters
    to take more responsibility for chores around the house.
    Her family went to school functions when she couldn't.
    Everyone pitched in. But years of sacrifice paid off: she
    recently was proud to learn that her eldest daughter
    received a $25,000 scholarship to DePauw University.
    She says she wants to tell single mothers, "It's not an
    easy job, but it can be done." 

    And it must be done. 

    Too often these days, I hear people blaming parents.
    And, it is true, some parents must be held accountable
    for the misdeeds of their children. I know there are bad
    parents out there. But the overwhelming number of
    parents are struggling to do what is best for their
    children. 

    Parents are the child's first and strongest moral
    compass. We teach as we do. And children learn from
    our example. 

    Let's not have any illusions about parenting. It is not only
    the most important work in the world, it is among the
    hardest. It is so easy to wound our children, so hard to
    heal them. So, let us not trash our nation's parents; let us
    treasure them. Let us not take them to task; let's give
    them a hand. Let us not limit them; let us liberate them.
    Let us free them to be the parents they want to be in their
    hearts -- the parents they know they can be in their
    hearts. 

    Let us free them to raise good kids. 

    Isn't that, after all, what we really want? Isn't that the goal
    of every parent? To raise good kids -- kids with good
    hearts and good minds who grow up to be good
    neighbors and good citizens. 

    It is parents, not peers, who raise our children. Parents
    are the primary resource for strengthening our children,
    for teaching them right from wrong, for inculcating a
    sense of self-worth and self-control, for engendering
    respect and responsibility. 

    I know this first hand. 

    I was an only child, but my mother had hundreds of
    children. She was a fourth-grade teacher in Brentwood,
    Missouri. She taught there for nine years, and she was a
    beacon for a generation of children. As a young man, I
    would sometimes answer a knock at the front door and
    find a gray-haired fellow who would say to me, "I was
    once your mother's pupil, and I just stopped by to thank
    her." 

    Every morning in her classroom, my mother would begin
    the day with a value lesson, a little homily about courage,
    or honesty, or responsibility. She believed it was not only
    her job to teach academics but also ethics. She knew
    that it was as important to instill a sense of justice as
    well as to be able to spell it. She tried to show her
    students that the values they learned from her in class
    were a kind of treasury of wisdom and strength they
    could call on for the rest of their lives. 

    I know, because she taught me, too, and I am still calling
    on those teachings today. 

    Politicians like to talk about children. Just throw in a
    mention of children and you get an applause line. Many
    politicians put laughing children in their ads because
    they hope such images will make voters think that they
    care. What politicians don't pledge to put the interests of
    children first? 

    In a way, politicians hide behind children because they
    so often use them without helping them. 

    I know, because politicians have been looking at the
    same grim statistics of child poverty for a long time. The
    people in this Democratic administration have looked at
    these same statistics of child poverty for seven long
    years. 

    But what have they done? They've tinkered around the
    margins. Some have even whispered, "Poor children will
    always be with us." But why do we do so little? Why do
    we spend so much less on our children compared with
    almost every other industrialized nation? Why are the
    interests of children so easily ignored? 

    Well, for one thing, children can't vote, so their needs are
    often not represented. Children do not make donations
    to political action committees, so they can't buy
    influence. Children do not hire lobbyists, so their
    concerns are not taken seriously. 

    Yes, children are special, but they're not a "special
    interest." And, too often, it is the special interests that
    get looked after in Washington. 

    It's the same old story. Big money sets our political
    agenda. The interests of children are not addressed
    because they're not part of the big money system. It's as
    simple as that. 

    Helping America's children may seem a long way from
    reforming campaign finance, but, in fact, they're closely
    intertwined. Because campaign finance distorts the
    nature of our democracy. It distorts what is important in
    our democracy. It perverts the ideals that our founders
    preached. Money warps politics and it makes some
    people more equal than others. In Washington, children
    are seen and not heard because it is money that talks
    the loudest. 

    The voices of those with the most money are the loudest,
    and the voices of those with the least money -- the
    voices of children -- are not heard. Reforming campaign
    finance will allow the voices of children -- and your voice
    -- to be heard. Reforming campaign finance will allow
    leaders to listen to their own inner voice, the voice of
    what they know is right, rather than the self-interested
    voices of their big contributors. 

    Children cannot vote, but you can. And this is not another
    chore, but a choice. A choice that can make a difference
    to your life and the lives of your children. Think about
    which candidate stands with you on the issues that affect
    your children. Think about which candidate will be your
    voice in the White House, and the voice of your children.
    Think about which candidate will listen to your voice and
    the voices of your children in the White House. 

    That is what is important to me as a candidate, that is
    what is important to me as a man, that is what is
    important to me as a father. 

    I am not beholden to special interests. But I am
    dedicated to interests that are special -- the interests of
    children. 

    I will be your voice in the White House. I will be the voice
    of your children. 

    To help America's children we must tap into four areas
    of our society: business, the civil sector, the government,
    and parents themselves. 

    The private sector must do more. American business
    must do more. It is, first of all, in their own self-interest --
    for today's children are tomorrow's work force. American
    business is the marvel of the world. Ten years ago,
    American business was considered second-rate behind
    the Asian tigers. Look at what American business has
    accomplished since then. Business now needs to turn its
    attention and energy toward kids and their parents. I call
    on not only business, but the unions, the trade
    associations, and the corporations to do more. 

    Modern communications -- the internet, e-mail, fax
    machines -- have irrevocably changed our sense of time
    and distance. And yet these technological marvels have
    not given parents what they really want and need: time. 

    Time to be with their children. Time to raise them. Time
    to watch them grow up. 

    Business must recognize the importance of parents
    having the time to be with their children. They must
    recognize the importance of giving workers the time to
    contribute to their community. Some are doing it already.
    Here in California, the Creative Artists agency
    encourages its employees to help their community by
    making the time to do community service a perk of their
    jobs, a fringe benefit. Such benefits are not "fringe" for
    they benefit not only the company, but the community
    and the country. This is a model for every company. 

    The civil sector must do more. 

    Community groups like the Boys and Girls Clubs of
    America are extensions of parents. 

    Children need mentors. And who better for that task than
    our senior citizens, men and women who can take our
    children under their wings, men and women with the
    wisdom and the experience to steer young people in the
    right direction. One way to encourage this is the
    following: if a senior citizen is paid by a community
    institution for working with young people, that money
    should not be off-set against Social Security. Let us do
    all that we can to encourage a bond between older and
    younger Americans. 

    Government must do more. 

    I know that no government can love a child like a parent.
    But the government can be a partner with parents to help
    them help their children. And it would not be the first time
    the government has done so. From the Mother's Aid
    laws in 1913, which provided aid for widows raising their
    children, to the child labor laws of 1938, which for the
    first time banned children from holding hazardous jobs,
    to the creation of Head Start in 1964. These are all big
    ideas, and we must not shy away from doing them
    again. We have the resources. We have the ideas. What
    we lack is the will. 

    We must end child poverty. We must raise the minimum
    wage and expand the earned income tax credit so that
    those earning the minimum wage can support a family.
    We must improve the level of day care in this country. In
    thirty-two states you can open a daycare center without
    even an hour of training. When it comes to childcare in
    this country, we are still an undeveloped nation. We must
    try to guarantee the kind of childhood that will allow every
    boy and every girl to achieve his or her full potential. For
    if the next generation does not reach its full potential,
    America can never reach its full potential. 

    Some have said the era of big government is over. I say
    that the era of big ideas in government is not over. 

    And finally, parents themselves must do more. 

    Go to your school board meetings. Be a voice for the
    kind of education you want your children to have. Attend
    your parent-teacher conferences. Volunteer for school
    trips. Be a coach. (But don't yell at your best player if she
    misses a jumper from the corner at the buzzer.) 

    Finally, raise a good kid. 

    Ultimately, the issue of children in America is an issue of
    justice. The disadvantages that keep so many of our
    children down are inconsistent with the ideals of the
    founders of our republic. Yes, all our children may be
    created equal, but they don't all have an equal
    opportunity to pursue and achieve their happiness. 

    I think of the great coalition of Americans that pursued
    racial justice in the 1960s. It was that courage and
    idealism that inspired me to go into public service
    twenty-five years ago. 

    I would like to lead a similar coalition today, a great
    multiracial, multiethnic coalition that brings together
    business and government, parents and civic groups on
    behalf of America's children and America's parents. 

    That is what inspires me to run for president today. 

    Almost six decades ago, in 1941, the lights of freedom
    were being snuffed out all across Europe. Franklin
    Roosevelt saw that the values America held dear were
    at risk -- that America itself was at risk. In that year, he
    went before Congress and spoke of the Four Freedoms
    that were under threat from without. I've come before you
    today to speak of the freedoms of childhood that are
    under threat from within. 

    As I stand here now, I say we must commit ourselves to
    fighting for the four essential freedoms of childhood: 

    Freedom from want. 
    Freedom from illness. 
    Freedom from ignorance. 
    And freedom from fear. 

    Just as Roosevelt saw that what America held dear was
    under threat so, now we see that our future is at risk.
    People know that deep down. That's why, in a recent
    poll, 75% of Americans said the number one national
    security threat was not nuclear war, but perils to our
    children. 

    Americans have always been a forward-looking people.
    We trust that where we're going will be even grander
    than from where we've come. 

    But I hear some people these days say we need to
    return to the Norman Rockwell America of yesteryear.
    Only then will our children grow up in peace and light. 

    But we cannot return to a remembered past, a past I'm
    not certain ever really existed. 

    I grew up in a small town in Missouri on the banks of the
    Mississippi River. It was a fine town of fine people, but I
    can never forget that when my Little League team was in
    a playoffs and we had to travel to Joplin, the team stayed
    in a third-rate hotel because a better one would not
    accept our catcher and left fielder who were black. 

    I don't remember Norman Rockwell painting that. 

    I want a better future for America's children than the past
    we think we remember. Childhood is not immutable. It
    changes as everything else does. You cannot preserve it
    like a pressed flower in a book. 

    We do not have segregated hotels today, but we have
    pornography on the internet and automatic weapons in
    the hands of children. Help me to change America, to
    make it a better, safer, more civil place for every child.
    Help me to give every child a better childhood than the
    one we remember. That is why I am running for
    president. 

    Many years ago the poet Langston Hughes wondered
    what happened to a dream deferred. I can't say I know
    the answer to his question. But I do know what happens
    to a dream denied. Let's not deny the chance to achieve
    that dream to any American child in the new century. 

    We must call upon the essential goodness of the
    American heart. I am calling on the essential goodness
    of the American heart. It's a goodness I've seen and
    experienced and come to know first-hand as I've
    traveled this land for thirty years. Americans always
    band together when the time is late and the challenge is
    great. We must all pull together to move the next
    generation ahead. For if we do not all pull together, we
    will all be pulled apart. 

    I believe that America will answer such a call. For it is a
    call not to special interests, but interests that are special.
    It is a call to what unites us, not to what divides us. It is a
    call to our ultimate self-interest. It is a call for a more
    perfect union, not a less bountiful one. It is a call to what
    makes this country great -- and that is our generosity,
    our goodness of heart. It is a call to the better angels of
    our nature. 

    And who are the better angels of our nature but our
    children?


