Children's Defense Fund president and founder, Marian Wright Edelman, giving her acceptance speech for the Amos award at the Amos and Joseph Award Ceremony on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 in Washington D.C.
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WASHINGTON – Founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman, declared Wednesday during an awards acceptance speech that ‘‘adults are what’s wrong with our children.”
At the Amos and Joseph Award Ceremony, the recipient of the 2006 Amos Award – given to a person that has been a strong voice for God’s judgment against poverty and injustice – said that people often ask her what is wrong with our children, listing problems such as “children addicted to tobacco, children roaming the streets, and being locked up in jail” as bad qualities seen in children today.
However, after a poetic recital of “What’s wrong with our children,” Edelman concluded, “Well adults are what’s wrong with our children.”
Edelman, the daughter of a Baptist preacher and the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi state bar, explained to the more than 600 Christian attendees that the problems seen in children are reflections of the problems in adults. She called on adults to repent for their wrongdoings.
“Adults telling children one thing and doing another. Adults making promises we don’t keep and preaching what we don’t practice. Adults telling children to control themselves while slapping and spanking. Adults telling children to be honest while lying and cheating,” said the CDF president. “Adults are what is wrong with our children and I hope we all repent.”
As a preacher’s daughter, Edelman was taught that Christianity required service in the world. She acknowledged Wednesday that adults are not perfect and children do not expect adults to be perfect, “but they (the children) need to see us (the adults) struggling to be honest and admit our mistakes.”
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was used as an example of an adult who spent time with young adults and who admitted that he was not perfect.
“One of the things I love about Dr. King is he was the first well-known adult who spent time with the young people who could say ‘I am scared’ or ‘I don’t know what the next step is going to be but you take that step in faith and leave the results to God,’” said Edelman.
“So we adults need to show our children how to struggle. That we are struggling to find the balance in our lives…. Children need to see adults standing up to fight for what is right for them and it is unacceptable that we tolerate children being the poorest age group in this society.”
According to the CDF president, a child is abused or neglected in the United States every 35 seconds; a child is born into poverty every 36 seconds; and a child born without health insurance every 42 seconds.
The long-time children’s right champion also spoke about the “cradle to prison pipeline,” an environment faced by poor, disadvantaged, minority children who are at high risk of leading marginalized lives and premature deaths.
“Prison is becoming the new slavery of the black community; it is also affecting the Latino community,” said Edelman. “We have two plus million people in jail…. What do we say about the value of a country that would rather spend three times more to lock a child up than to give him a good public education?”
A graduate from Yale Law School, Edelman has been involved in the civil rights movement, racial justice issues, and child development.
