Here's something my ten-year-old nephew, Calluph Mayberry-Gillus, wrote!
I thought I should share it with you immediately!
CHILD ABUSE, BY Calluph Mayberry-Gillus, aged ten
As everyone knows, poverty, global capitalism and the illegal war on terror have led to the breakdown of families all over the world. What this does to children is far worse: more and more are at risk of abuse and exploitation. It was always understood, at least to me, that children are best protected by liberals - who support children, families with children, communities with children and governments who govern children. After all, it was the Democratic party who always looked out for the most vulnerable - the under-aged beset by global warming, racial intolerance, and the always present fanatical American religious right.
So it pains me to see right here, on the Huffington Post, an abuse of children - and such an obvious example, that I am surprised this site has not been shut down. I am refering to the post by Della Turque-Henneberg, written about Nancy Pelosi.
Alarmingly, the young girl's name incorporates the mother and father's surname - yet she still remains unpaid. Even the most privileged, it seems, are deemed slave labor. Worse, she is the daughter of Melinda Henneberger, a Newsweek contributor, a former "unbiased mainstream media reporter!" Where is the justice?
How can using a ten year old girl to write a post (one that features a rehearsed
joke about Dick Cheney right up front) be any different the worst kind of child labor? Where is the outcry against using a child as a football to score a political point?
Granted, I am impressed that a ten year old girl knows that, when writing an essay, you should always begin with an ice breaker. It's also heartening to see her advanced cynicism - one that allows her to spin Cheney's accident into an entertaining joke for her receptive audience -- brings a smile to everyone's face. Oddly, she is not old enough to wear braces, yet she's still old enough to know how important it is to include a fawning note about Arianna and her blog.
As my uncle used to say, "That's pretty good for a ten year old."
He was, of course, refering to my latest offering from my class on driftwood art.
Here at the Post, you spend so much time trying to stop the abuse of children, and yet you allow one to be manipulated to make coy jokes and mimic speech patterns of a self-congratulatory 45 year old liberal blogging in his/her bathrobe! I thought this Congress was heralded as being for the children. And already you are already exploiting them.
Please send your comments of outrage to Savethechildren.org. in care of Cenk. Let's stop this abuse once and for all!