To the Defenders of the Faith,

Thank you all very, very much for your overwhelming response to the Elder Justice Bill I wrote of in my last commentary. It makes me so very proud that thousands of you have rallied around this most importance cause for the elderly. I realize that over the past few months, I have dwelled on what appears to be quite depressing subject matter. But if I do not bring these issues to the forefront, who will? So, forgive me yet, here I go again...

In the last two months I have traveled extensively across America lecturing and dealing with end-of-life care. In newspaper articles in city after city, one profoundly disturbing subject kept glaring at me: the absolute failure of the state and federal foster care programs. Four hundred thousand children disappear every year in these programs, right here in the United States of America. I simply cannot fathom how this is possible? Something is horrendously amiss in our state and federal programs when we can allow our tax dollars to be appropriated towards the total neglect and abuse of our helpless children. In some cases, these children have been raped, sold into slavery and even murdered. From Florida to Washington (literally every state in the union is included is this atrocity) has lost and missing children who were supposedly placed in the solid protective care of our national programs. As our government endeavors to liberate the people of Iraq, and keep the world safe from terrorism, how is it that this unconscionable situation exists within our own borders? We must a solution to this egregious problem. We all need to take it upon ourselves as a personal responsibility to act as the guardian of the elderly as well as the children of our great nation. For if we do not do this, what right do we have to wage war overseas while turning a blind eye to our own heritage and our most treasured natural resource ~ our children?

I ask that you write your governor and legislators demanding to know about the failures of the foster care programs in your state. I urge you to create local community watchdog groups to question and demand to know the whereabouts of these missing children. Investigate the conditions under which all children presently in foster care are living. The time has come for us to open our eyes, and our hearts as we cease to depend solely upon the government to handle the social protection of our elderly and our children, for it has proven itself to be woefully inadequate. As fellow Americans, it is now our mission to become conscious and proactive in the area of human rights in our own communities. Elected officials, who in our name and with our tax dollars allow these intolerable events to continue, must be made accountable. With your help, this can be addressed and corrected. In the name of the helpless and the defenseless ~the children of America~ I beg for your support.