I believe a civilized, compassionate society takes care of their most vulnerable members -- their children. Children do not have voting power or lobbying might. They must rely on the magnanimity of adults for protection.

In the U.S., over 15 million children are food insecure. Twenty percent of all children in this country live in poverty. How can this be, in the richest country the world has ever known? I cannot abide a society that gives obscene tax breaks to billionaires and multi-billion dollar corporations, at the expense of feeding hungry children.

One hears a lot of talk about Christian values in this country. People bemoan how we need to put "God" back into the "Pledge of Allegiance" and "Christ" back into Christmas. People use their Christian faith as a pretext to deny others the right to marry the person of their choice, or the right to equal protection under the law. Many of the same people, however, bemoan social programs designed to feed hungry children, and support politicians who vow to cut these programs. Evidently, gays marrying is an affront to their Christian beliefs, but children going hungry isn't. I find the blatant hypocrisy abhorrent.

In society's prefabricated sanctuary of denial, facts are not allowed to intrude. The guardians of our collective conscience have fashioned a formidable array of rationalizations that allow us all to lay our heads down on our pillows at night and sleep soundly; our hearts in a safe and impenetrable place.

Foremost among these rationalizations, is the assertion that social programs such as food stamps and welfare need to be cut, because of the rampant abuse that exists in these programs. Even if this were true, the obvious response is that it is the unavoidable reality that ALL government programs have a certain amount of abuse. It is impossible to police any program one hundred percent.

The truth, though, is that multiple studies have indicated that the rate of abuse in these social programs is quite low, much lower than in other government programs. Why don't these same protectors of the government coffers call for cuts to government subsidies for corporations and billionaires that are rampant with abuse?

I feel there is an even more fundamental dynamic at work. As a humane society, wouldn't the benefits of feeding hungry children be worth the drawback of a few people gaming the system? To me, as a taxpayer, it is a price I am happy to pay in order to feed hungry children. On the other hand, society and our politicians turn a blind eye to the fact that billionaires and filthy rich corporations exploit government subsidies and tax loopholes, and the only benefit is that the rich get even richer. Where is the logic in this?

Another common rationalization is the famous "blame the victim" syndrome. Children are always the innocent victims, but, somehow they are forced to pay for the sins of their parents. Even if a child's parents are shiftless, no good drug addicts who refuse to work (this is largely a myth, by the way), why should the child be made to suffer.

Some may say I am naive, but it seems clear to me that we can do much more to feed our children and raise them out of poverty. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on corporate welfare, with no benefit to society. Programs designed to provide sufficient food for children, have an incredible ripple effect. The findings from numerous studies have concluded that child hunger is one of the major contributing factors in under-performing school districts in high poverty areas. A simple policy of ensuring that all children have access to sufficient food would have an immense impact on our education system and the lives of millions of children. I am convinced that the cost of such an initiative can be paid for by reforming corporate welfare policies, and the payback to our society in the form of raising a well-fed and well-educated generation of children would be incalculable.

As a compassionate society, we need to come to the realization that we have a collective responsibility to our children. A responsibility that goes beyond one's own children. We must realize that they are all our children.