Children of a Lesser Time : An alarming report on the plight of our youngest generation

Childhood should be a wondrous and carefree time. In sorting through rosy memories of childhood, many adults relive the simple and unadulterated joy of chasing a butterfly in the back yard. Or watching a seedling sprout in the garden. Or climbing a tree to get that first loquat of the summer.

Such picture-perfect experiences, however idealized, are far beyond the reach of many of today’s children. Too much of their childhood is consumed with worry about violence, getting enough food, having a place to live, health care and other decidedly adult concerns.

According to Children Now, a nonprofit advocacy group for young people, since 1991 more than 75,000 California children slipped into poverty, more than 81,000 were put into foster care and more than 700 were homicide victims.

The grim result: The youngsters of California are more likely to grow up poor, have babies as teen-agers, be victims of homicide and be more likely to suffer abuse or neglect than other children in the United States.

As the state grapples with a budget crisis of huge and still unfolding proportion, services for children face the chopping block. But the danger of putting children “on hold” during a budget crisis is not the same, as one children’s advocate put it, as delaying highway improvements. A lost year of childhood is not only irretrievable but could forever determine a youngster’s lot in life.

On a strictly economic basis, a huge cost is borne by the state and its taxpayers because more than 2 million children are medically uninsured.

In a Times article recently, staff writer Claire Spiegel wrote of a chilling example that unfortunately is common throughout the nation. At the Venice Family Health Clinic, three children examined last year were suffering from ear infections that had gone untreated; as a result, their eardrums ruptured and in one case infection had spread near the brain.

Caring for these three youngsters at public hospitals cost taxpayers about $25,000. Yet the medication that could have prevented the problems costs less than $20. What a horrific waste.

That’s why a health plan that covers all Californians, such as the proposal put forward by state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, deserves serious consideration.

The question always arises: How can we afford to do anything? The real question is: How can we afford not to?