Child Care

Senate minority leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) “stressed that there was no hurry to pass such a bill (parental leave and child care). This is not an urgent matter” (“Senate Filibuster Kills Family Bill,” Part I, Oct. 8). I wonder if Dole has asked any new mother who has to “hurry” back to work after the birth of her child to insure the financial health of her family; has he asked the father who “hurries” into the hospital each evening after work, to spend a moment with his desperately ill youngster; or has he asked the parents who make “hurried” arrangements with a neighbor for the care of their new infant, because there is nothing else available that they can afford? Has he ever discussed “urgency” with parents?

The Republicans frighten me with their filibusters and buck-passing. They talk about family, they take pictures with their own families and they pray for all families. Talk is cheap, pictures can be deceiving, and posed prayer is posturing. But God does not build day-care centers. He requires our help. We must support God’s love for our children with our own performance. One way is to make sure that our lawmakers understand the urgency of our needs. Congress has been dragging its feet on child care and parental leave. Now, thanks to the Republicans, it has dug in its heels.

We dare not vote for candidates who prate about their concerns for the needs and problems confronting today’s families, and then deliberately kill a measure that would provide solutions.

AGNES G. HERMAN

San Marcos