Posts by Ben Dawson
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Being Loving Champions for Justice
For people whose hearts are broken by seeing news of parents, families, and children suffering anywhere, this has been a difficult week.
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Fourth of July Lessons from Frederick Douglass
On a Fourth of July when many Americans are expressing profound concerns about whether the government’s orders, decisions, and votes are representing their voices and asking questions about what we the people means today, it is an opportune time to return to the keynote speech Frederick Douglass gave in Rochester, New York, at an Independence Day celebration on July 5, 1852.
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Immigration
Children’s Defense Fund: “Denying the Constitutional Right to Citizenship Would Harm Children”
The implications of ending, or even threatening, birthright citizenship are far-reaching and serious. Denying the constitutional right to citizenship would harm children, families, and communities throughout the United States, weakening the moral and social fabric of our nation.
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KIDS Count
Following the Facts on Child Well-Being
Earlier this month, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its 2025 edition of the KIDS COUNT® Data Book, an annual resource that measures national and state data on economic well-being, education, health, and family and community factors.
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Gun Violence
Rejecting the Menace of Violence
On an extraordinary day when an estimated five million people came together at rallies and protests across the country to share their political views nonviolently, political violence still struck our nation.
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Gun Violence
Gun Violence Awareness Day
The day after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was running for President, appeared at a Cleveland event and said instead of talking about politics he had to speak about the “mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.”
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Early Childhood
Sixty Years of Head Start
Head Start began as an eight-week summer program; it has since served nearly 40 million children and families across the United States. But today, like other basic needs programs millions of children, young people, and families rely on, Head Start has been under attack.
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Education
Advice for Young Graduates
During this season I like to share some of the lessons for life I offered my own children and many of the extraordinary young graduates I’ve had the privilege of meeting over the years.
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Child Poverty
Be Careful What You Cut
Some years ago, the award-winning agency Fallon Worldwide created a series of ads for a pro bono Children’s Defense Fund campaign called “Be Careful What You Cut” that warned sharply against budget choices threatening programs on which children and families rely.
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