I love my children and I love my grandchildren. I was reminded how lucky my children are to have had the life they did growing up as I watched “Slumdog Millionaire.” They were lucky to be born to parents in the United States that loved them, helped them grow and gave them, I hope, many advantages. They were the same advantages I had growing up. We don’t think too often how different our lives might have been had we been born to different parents in a different country.

We value our children in the United States or do we? I could say we value those children that are ours and those children that are growing up with our friends and family.

The reason I make that statement is the fact that we do not always look at the larger picture. Our children are the future of our country. Yet their future seems to be tied in many ways to money.

We are no longer able to educate our children so they will grow up with the advantage of a good education in a technological world. Grade schools and high schools are cutting back on teachers and curriculum. As adults we keep voting down referendums and money for new schools so our children can keep up with this fast moving world. Many students are no longer able to afford college and if they do it is hard to understand how long it will take them to get out of debt. Do we value our children if we as parents and grandparents do not want to foot the bill for the next generation?

Do we value our children if we can’t provide and afford medical care for all of the children?

Do we value our children if we let families and children go homeless without knowing where their next meal or shelter is going to come from?

Recently a program on television highlighted the number of growing homeless children. They are not homeless because their parents did not want to provide for them. They are homeless because parents lost their jobs and then their homes. One of the articles I read stated that 1 in 50 children in the United States are homeless. That seems high but maybe it is correct. An article written in 2005 from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network stated that homeless children are sick at twice the rate of other children, go hungry twice as often, have twice the rate of learning disabilities and the list goes on . This was from 2005 and this is 2009. The rates have to have increased. Do we value our children?

We get upset when we hear of a puppy mill or animals mistreated. People picket and rescue the puppies and treat them and find them homes. Who rescues our children? There are many organizations and homeless shelters that help these families and these children. Puppies find a home, children maybe find a shelter.

We protest because of war and all the killing that war brings. Why aren’t we protesting homelessness especially homelessness for the children?

It haunts me that we have children in the United States that are homeless. Yet I am like many people, it haunts me but I do nothing except throw a little money at some of the organizations that help these children. Maybe it is because I feel helpless and I admit I do not know any homeless children. I do not see them on our streets and because of that it is easy to ignore. It is easy to turn my head and continue on with my life.

We can’t expect the government to solve this problem. I don’t know how to solve this problem. But there have to be people out there that have built empires that could put their heads together and come up with a solution to help these children. There are many agencies but each agency works separately and there are many more homeless children then there are agencies.

We have private schools for wealthy children. Why not private schools for homeless children? Schools where these children could live, sleep in the same bed each night, are fed and are educated. I mentioned this to someone once and they said “We had those once, they were called orphanages.” Are private schools orphanages? These schools would be a place where children would be safe until their parents could find a job and put a roof over their head once more. There are many empty commercial buildings that are large and could be converted into a school for these children.

But there is the catch. Who is going to do this? And we are back to the subject of money. Who is going to pay for this? Who has enough clout to get this done? It seems to me that we pay our sports figures millions and billions of dollars. We pay big bucks for tickets and frivolous things and I will include myself in the frivolous things. But we don’t have enough money to house our homeless children.

These children are the future of the United States of America. They are our future too.

I recently saw the movie Swing Vote. It was kind of funny. It wasn’t a movie most people will remember. One line caught my attention. It is this: “If we are the richest country in the world, why is it some of us can barely afford to live here?”

I leave you with this question? Do we value our children?

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.