Don't just accept

Ah, Children in need, another opportunity for society to indulge in cognitive myopia. There are questions we need ask ourselves, starting with, in a first world country, which boasts being the 5th richest in the world, why are there so many children in need? Why do we accept hundreds of thousands children languishing without the treatment or support they need? Why do we accept 3.7 million children living in poverty (1.7 in severe poverty)? Why do we accept hundreds of thousands of young people suffering depression? Doing things to raise money is noble and worthy, though it accepts the need without questioning it, and so perpetuates it. Rather we should be outraged and ashamed, calling for immediate action in the face of the ever increasing number of children in need, and the breadth of those needs. Do you know this is the 37th year of children in need, and every year that need has increased. Of course, the establishment support and endorse Children in need, they'll often appear on it. It's become an institution, they'll say. They love it because it distracts us from the facts that there are children in need by design and policy, or at least through ideology. But of course I'm just being a killjoy, tonight celebrities will do their thing, people will be thoroughly entertained, they'll go, ah, donate some money, job done, and forget. Then ironically, tomorrow many of those people will return to supporting the same old policies which put children in need. Same time next year?