What does the Trump regime’s war with Iran have to do with Child Exploitation? First, regimes that use war and violence to take what they want from others (land, water, minerals, slaves, oil, power…) are criminal regimes. Second, regimes that promote war and violence while denying its own citizens and immigrants basic human needs (healthcare, safe shelters, food, clean drinking water, clean air, childcare…) are criminal regimes. Third, regimes that align themselves with cruel, criminal world leaders while defying world organizations that promote peace and human rights are criminal regimes. Not a Finally, because comparisons between authoritarian regimes (Trump/GOP, Putin, Netanyahu, Orban…) and governments that prioritize democracy, human rights, liberty, justice, and peace are endless.
Just as authoritarian regimes take what they want by any means necessary, without remorse or pity for the most vulnerable in their societies, so also do rapists and pedophiles. Just as authoritarian regimes aggressively wrench the necessities of life from the masses to enrich themselves, so also do wealthy business enterprises that exploit child labor. Just as authoritarian regimes join forces with powerful criminals and wealthy criminal enterprises to grow their power and coverup their crimes, so also do pedophile networks. The Trump regime is a criminal enterprise; our children are not safe from its cruel endeavors.
Who will protect our children? Certainly, Christian Nationalists will not do so. Christian Nationalists will protect the wealthy and powerful people who share their wealth and power with them. Christian Nationalism is 1930s Germany Fascism, but with King James Bibles and American flags and Republican party wealth. Fascists in Italy and Germany did not protect children from poverty or homelessness; they caused starvation, poverty, homelessness, and death. Fascists used children for slave labor, stuffed the orphanages because their fathers died in war, killed Jewish and Slav and physically or mentally disabled children (Kinder-Euthanisie). Children had no voice or power; even the powerful Goebbels killed their children in 1945 rather than let them live in a Germany free from fascist ideology. Christian Nationalists desire wealth and power. Their desire for wealth and power, their willing complicity with criminals to gain wealth and power, is the ultimate rejection of Jesus’ teachings.
Who will protect our children and how will it happen?
When families thrive, so also do their children. Families must have jobs and wages that give them the freedom to choose their working hours, to live near good public schools and their places of employment, to access free and affordable healthcare, to live in safe and affordable neighborhoods, to grow food and buy healthy, locally sourced food. Families need support from governments that acknowledge families’ contributions to healthy, productive, peaceful, secure, and prosperous societies.
When orphanages and foster care systems thrive, so do the children and the communities in which the children grow up. Children must have full, nurturing, dependable, and stable support systems. For orphanages and foster care homes to remain safe, clean, and dependable places where children thrive, governments must heavily regulate and fully fund them, including the religious/faith-based institutions. Especially the religious/faith-based institutions!
When women thrive, so do the children. Women are the mothers, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, classroom teachers, healthcare professionals, childcare workers, and empathetic politicians on which children rely. Women must have the freedom to make personal healthcare and reproductive choices, including the freedom to access safe pregnancy terminations. Women must have equitable and easy access to affordable healthcare, from birth control to prenatal and after-birth care. Women must the full support of their governments and communities so that the children have the unwavering, steady support of the women who care for them.
When local economies thrive, so do the children. The streets are safe places for children to explore and play, the families prosper and provide for their children’s needs, the public schools have sufficient funds to hire the best teachers and provide programs that fulfill every child’s learning needs, parks and recreation areas increase, art and music programs flourish, and social programs that provide food and shelter to the poor and vulnerable also increase. Thriving local economies and neighborhoods are better at keeping their streets safe from criminal activities.
When communities thrive, so do the children. Communities that see every child and all the children as their responsibility are communities where children receive protection and nurturing care. Every child is the future of the community. The well-being of every child is the chief concern of the community.
We judge our local and national governments on the status of all our children. Where children are hungry, homeless, sick, or uneducated, the governments are failures. Where children die on the streets or in their schools, the governments are failures. Where children grow up without healthcare, society has unhealthy and unhappy adults. Where children have limited access to good public schools, society has willfully ignorant adults and religious extremists. Where children grow up seeing powerful white supremacists and criminals thrive, society has greater numbers of white supremacists and criminals. Where children grow up experiencing wave after wave of economic failures, society has more young men and women who will enlist in the military and go to war.
Where children grow up seeing pedophiles and rapists protected because they are the wealthy and powerful adults in political, business, and religious circles, the society raises another generation of powerful pedophiles and rapists. Where children know they lack healthcare, food, and shelter because their government funds billionaires and the military industry, society bears the fruit of its angriest citizens.