A White Paper Prepared by
The Mayor's Commission for Children
Springfield, Missouri
August 2005 |
|
|
| Download white
paper as
a PDF. Adobe® Reader® is
required. |
| Technical and methodology backup reports
to the above white paper findings:
|
| For further information about this document,
contact Denise Bredfeldt, Executive Director, Mayor’s Commission
for Children, 227 E. Chestnut Expressway, Springfield MO 65802, phone
(417) 864-1656; fax (417) 864-1099,
email dbredfeldt@ci.springfield.mo.us To
view this report electronically visit the Library web page thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org or www.mayorscommission.org where
a technical report detailing the results and analyses of the survey questionnaires
is also available. |
“In order to understand the tide of violent behavior in which
America is now submerged, we must look…to the cradle of human
formation in the first thirty-three months of life. Those months, including
nine months of prenatal development and the first two years after birth
(33 months), harbor the seeds of violence for a growing percentage
of American children….
“The ghosts of children lost to rage and despair, overlooked
or abused by a community unaware of their existence, do retaliate.
These children - like all children - ‘do unto others.’ It
may be easy and politically expedient to ignore them or close our
eyes to the appalling circumstances of their lives while they are
voiceless
and powerless - little bodies tucked away where no one is looking.
But those children - grown larger and angrier - are swelling the
rising tide of violent young offenders in our communities. Rage
filled adolescents
only seem to come out of nowhere. They come, too often, from the
nursery.”
--Ghosts from the Nursery, by Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley,
p. 9 |
|
