Loccked Out and Locked Up: Youth Missing in Action From Obama's Stimulus Plan

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/127460, Though during this economic crisis much has been said about te conditions that enabled the free market to operate without accountability in the interests of the rich and the great suffering that it has created for millions of hard-working, decent human beings, but why is nothing being said regarding the ongoing insecurity and injustice that todays youth are facing? Arn't todays youth considered to be the future of tomorrow? Yet, the current concerns about the effects of poverty, homelessness, economic injustice, and galloping unemployment rates and Obama's plan to rectify them almost completely ignor the effects of these problems on young people in the United States, especially poor whites and youth of color. Henry A. Giroux addresses this in his article, Locked Out and Locked Up: Youth Missing in Action From Obama's Stimulus Plan. As Giroux states it, children seem to have no standing in the public sphere as citizens and as such are denied any sense of entitlement and agency. It is a fact that children have fewer rights than almost any other group, and fewer institutions protecting these rights. This has resulted in their voices and needs being almost completely absent from the debates, poolicies, and legislatve practices that are constructed in terms of their needs. The suffering and deprivation experienced by millions of children in the U.S. in 2008 that is bound to get worse during the current economic meltdown is a true testimony to a state of emergency and crisis regarding the health and welfare of many children. There is such a need for action against the present problem facing America's youth, and Obama's message of hope and responsibility will be meaningless unless he addressess the plight of poor white youth and youth of color. I definatelly feel that the focus needs to be shifted onto America's youth, how can we as American citizens ever expect to have a promising future if the health, safety and welfare of our youths is not brought into the spotlight.