A photo shows a sample of these kid-deprivers caught in the act of their despicable behavior: an elderly man bent over his walker waiting for his turn to vote at Leisure City. Adding fuel to this me versus them scenario is a chart titled: “Children suffer in budget process”, indicating that spending on adults “was almost five times greater per person in 2004 than spending on children. At the same time, the poverty rate for children was nearly twice as high.”

The fact that the poverty rate for children is so high is truly alarming. But framing this issue in the context of taking care of the elderly as the cause of this deficit is finger pointing at its worst. A healthy society takes care of both its children and its elderly.

In any case, framing this debate as either/or—the elderly versus children—is false logic. The truth is that the national budget has many tugs and pulls that divert money from one worthwhile cause to another. The lead to these stories could just as easily have compared the rise in spending on something like rising maintenance cost of our nation’s highways or the increasing amounts we’re spending subsidizing certain food crops.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t maintain our highways, or ensure that our food supplies remain healthy. What I am saying is that if there isn’t enough in our coffers to take care of all of our basic needs—including the basic needs of our most vulnerable categories of its citizenry—it is false logic to imply that it is one of those needy demographic subsegments itself, that is to blame. In fact, this is also something that should send a chill down our spines.

Carol Orsborn