Subject: Compassion, and political will
From: "Mark Shriver" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 17:16:50 -0000

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Dear Hunter,

Last Sunday’s New York Times featured a column by Nicholas Kristof entitled The Compassion Gap (http://t.e2ma.net/click/pnfid/h9ytd/pnrnxb). Kristof wrote the column after receiving a surprising amount of negative feedback to an earlier piece on the need to invest in early childhood development programs (When Even the Starting Line Is Out of Reach (http://t.e2ma.net/click/pnfid/h9ytd/5fsnxb)).

Like Kristof, I was shocked by some of the comments directed at Truffles, whose three-year-old son, Johnny, is enrolled in Save the Children’s early childhood program in West Virginia. There is indeed a compassion gap in this country and Kristof is absolutely right: “when kids in poverty stumble, it’s not quite right to say that they ‘failed.’ Often, they never had a chance.”

Save the Children is working to change the story for kids like Johnny here in the United States and around the world. But if we want all kids to have a chance, we need more than compassion; we need political will. It’s become far too easy for our elected officials to pay lip-service to kids, calling them our most precious resource but then slashing funds for programs that feed and educate them and save their lives.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, we are launching a new initiative that aims to mobilize Americans to make children a national priority and hold elected officials accountable in the process. We already are mobilizing around the 2015 federal budget, pushing for increased investments in early childhood education domestically and a recommitment to ending preventable child deaths globally. President Obama has done his part (http://t.e2ma.net/click/pnfid/h9ytd/l8snxb) and now we need to ensure that Congress funds these priorities. I hope you will join our Advocacy Summit on April 8-9 (http://t.e2ma.net/click/pnfid/h9ytd/10tnxb) and make your voice heard. You can participate in person (http://t.e2ma.net/click/pnfid/h9ytd/htunxb) or online (http://t.e2ma.net/click/pnfid/h9ytd/xlvnxb).

I will stay in touch over the next several months and hope we can count on your support. As always, I welcome your thoughts and questions.

Warmly,

Mark

 (http://t.e2ma.net/click/pnfid/h9ytd/dewnxb)

2000 L Street, NW Suite 500 | Washington, DC 20036 US

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