Childwatch Column

  • A Place at the Table

    Until our nation makes a permanent change in “concern for ‘the least of these,’” there will be millions still searching for their place at America’s table of plenty.

  • Toward a New Day

    You and I now have the opportunity—and awesome responsibility—to compose and play the next movement of the symphony of freedom and justice. That will be the sound of the joyful new day children and youth everywhere deserve.

  • Immigration

    Early Steps Forward

    Fifty years after Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) was founded, some of CDF’s marks of impact go all the way back to the beginning.

  • Honoring a Long Fight for Truth and Justice

    On October 9, Hughes Van Ellis, who was one of the last three known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, passed away at age 102. In a statement after he passed away, Oklahoma State Rep. Regina Goodwin said, “Two days ago, Mr. Ellis urged us to keep fighting for justice. In the midst of his death, there remains an undying sense of right and wrong.”

  • Child Welfare

    O God of All Children

    At a moment of unspeakable terror, horror, violence, and despair, Scripture and prayers are often the first words that rise. I offer again a prayer to the God of all children.

  • More Lessons in Leadership

    Every time there is a new debate over political leadership it is worth returning to the examples we want to see.

  • Child Poverty

    A Measure of Leadership

    As some members of Congress showed they were willing to bring the federal government to the brink of a shutdown, with demands that include deep cuts to services children and families rely on, once again some people have accused them of acting like children. Yet even five-year-olds understand that quitting the game and taking the ball home if the other players won’t give you your way is wrong.

  • Nurturing Children with a Heart for Justice

    “If we treat people with different skin tones, languages, sexualities, genders, as bad or less than, our children will. If we wall ourselves off, hem ourselves into homogenous circles, our children will see those unlike themselves as ‘other.’ But, if we seek out or create diverse community, an inclusive circle of chosen family or ‘kin,’ that’s how our children will regard them."

  • Four Little Girls

    Sixty years ago, on September 15, 1963, four little girls were changing into choir robes and chatting in a church restroom as they prepared for the Youth Sunday services being held that morning at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Instead, at 10:22 a.m., a bundle of dynamite that white supremacists had hidden under the church steps exploded.

  • “Draw the Circle Wide”

    We are all called to do the work of dismantling our divisions and instead to see each other and every child as beloved, precious children of God. Instead of drawing lines, we are called to draw wider circles.