Nick Anderson for June 03, 2012

Another question of who DOES care about survival of posterity, or “what have the done so far for us?”

Wow! Nick.

One of the best strips I have ever read and I have been reading them for over 50 years. Too true.

Just wow !!!

this is good strip, because it is true. the gop, the party of “family values,” doesn’t have the will to pass something that protects kids? they probably have some bible verse about sparing the rod and spoiling the child and discipline. but, how is discipline when a grown up beats a child, their own child. and, they beat them up for years, and wonders why the child kills the parents or kids at school or kills themselves or is killed by the parent? like kip kinkel, charles whitman, columbine, etc…

Excellent reality check. As I continue to say if you want to protect the people of the United States…

This is another "long format’ editorial cartoon that Nick has developed. Obviously it takes a bit longer to draw this one. It also takes a bit more research to get the facts right. The greatest indictment is that since children don’t vote, and those who protect children don’t want to be fingered as inept, legislators will not sponsor or support a bill that will demand better protection of children. I hope this cartoon is seen in more papers than the Houston Chronicle.

The proposed Act is about a commission to try to better understand the problem. What are you running on about?

Great point about our priorities. However, the last image reinforces the mistaken impression that it is men, and in particular fathers, who commit the bulk of child abuse, including fatal child abuse. This is FALSE! According to the Department of Health and Human Services report on Child Maltreatment (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm10/cm10.pdf), 37.2% of child maltreatment was at the hands of mothers acting alone; 19.1% was at the hands of fathers acting alone; and 18.5% was by the parents acting together and 13% was by non-parents. With respect to fatal child abuse, 29.2% was by mothers acting alone, 17.1% by fathers acting alone, and 21.9% by fathers and mothers acting together.

Let’s address the terrible issue of child maltreatment without biases that distort our understanding of the issue.

Excellent Nick!!

The radical Wealthy don’t care about helping educate our middle class, only gutting education budget. Guess they don’t plan on us being around (or contributing) in the future.

The unescapable truth is that Republicans don’t really care about children. They pretend to when they are in the womb but, once born even that pretense disappears.

Why educate children for non-existing jobs? Cut out the middle man:JAILSCHOOL.

My alcoholic father, and older brother, were violent, abusive and bullies. My brother continued to be so, physically and “emotionally” with his kids. As a result of my experience, I couldn’t be “mean” to my kids, but PTSD did lead to an avoidance of contact. My niece and nephews likewise learned from “bad” experience how NOT to treat their kids.

The ‘over reach" of the “nanny state” has been “interesting”. When my daughter was in third grade, the state mandated schools warn little girls, that if “daddy hugs or kisses you, report him for abuse”. Gree- that was under a "conservative governor and legislature. Now, “liberals” are telling librarians they have an OBLIGATION to report anything they might THINK is evidence of kids coming in who’ve been abused, or are in a “bad situation” at home.

It is often “boyfriends” who kill kids. Often its neglect by "parents’ who never should have been, but gee, they couldn’t get abortions. Drug abuse, when treatment isn’t available, or an option, only incarceration, also leads to avoiding the problem, until the kids pay the price.

IF we spent as much time and effort providing PROGRAMS, for people, of ALL economic classes, where they could learn, without persecution, how to be parents, or deal with their “problems” it might be a start, rather than starting more wars.

I recognize that last image, saw it a lot as a kid. A big part of why it’s continued is that under our “uber Christian” acceptance of violence, and “spare the rod-spoil the child” mentality, we’ve not really CARED about, or for, “the kid”.

Better not vote against anything that has “For the Children;” no matter how goofy it may be.Oh yeah, I forgot; once again it’s Bush’s fault. Those evil, child, poor,elderly, handicapped, hating Republicans.

PI really am sorry to say that mail from constituents is machine-screened first to confine received mail to only zip codes in the members’ districts, then absent money, the communication is scanned by a machine gathering key words. A week or so later, the second machine prints out, folds and addresses a pre-written response to the largest number of key words. No human ever sees or touches it. If there are not enough key words the commication is trashed, or if electronic, simply erased. But all non-monetary communications end up trashed anyway; some sooner than others.

I am a small grandmother and, during the practice of law was shot at twice. So I carried my own gun because, if confronted with someone meaning me harm, suggesting the person should get right with whatever dead male god they’ve heard of is effective only if accompanied by the barrel of a loaded 9. And this is not confined to the US. Try to remember where the last mass killings happened. There are no violence-free zones.

Only outgoing repub governors pardon murders.

Good points – but does not take the arguement far enough. What about the helpless unborn whom our government pays to have murdered while still inside their mother?

mdavis: you DO realize that you just made the best argument for giving ALL women full, unfettered access to contraception, family planning, AND early and safe abortion??

“I couldn’t be “mean” to my kids, but PTSD did lead to an avoidance of contact. "I was horrified when learn that there exists a psychological assessment test dealing specifically with PTSD in children. My childhood was no cakewalk, but I shudder to think of what happens to kids these days.

Thanks for telling us what we look like from an outsider’s perspective — not that anyone will listen, but at least you tried. Sad but true!!

@dhubin Those stats are misleading. Yes, more moms than dads mistreat the kids, but that is because there are more female-centered-single-parent homes where the kids live. Moms are more likely to neglect the children, dads (and other men in the household) are more likely to be violent — resulting in more deaths). As a former CPS worker, I have seen this with my own eyes. Note I said “former” — there is very good reason for that — and just reading some of the comments above should “say it all.”

“…you claim to be a christian nation!”

Only the Republicans & Tea Party claim that; the rest of us Americans know that we may be a religious nation, it’s not wholly “Christian”. In fact, the treaty with the Muslims (also called the “Treaty of Friendship at Tripoli”, the first treaty signed by a US president back when we first became a Nation) states that the US can*not* be a “Christian” Nation. After all, it is not “Christians” who run this Country, but Americans, and I for one wish to see it remain that way. Otherwise, America would be just like Iran, run by its religious leaders – and there’d be a real Second Revolutionn going on here.

Those opposed to both contraception AND abortion, should try skydiving without a parachute, and see how that works out for them. “Life threatening” pregnancies take many forms. Poverty, abuse, abandonment, starvation, and life-long criminality and incarceration ARE statistically prominent impacts NOT directly the “health of the mother”…

@Zoidnut is just that —a nut. However, @Ima has yet to show me that it’s Human. I tend to ignore what it says as it usually spouts nonsense.

Laws and rules are not the answer- until parents learn to love their own offspring this will still be a national disgrace. Single parent families tend to increase the problems. PROMOTE MARRIAGE!

Actually, the “War on Terror” , and thus promotion of fear, goes back to the 1950’s, Joe McCarthy, and the creation of the “Boodeyman state” created by “conservative Republicans” like the JBS, which has grown all out of proportion to reality.