The Rt. Rev. Mark M. Beckwith, Bishop of Newark, writes in a guest column for The Star-Ledger:
I have been with too many kids over the years who have felt the violence of being pushed out, kicked out, ignored, forgotten or treated as acceptable collateral damage in political and economic battles between alleged adults. We can do better.
We can build partnerships — between businesses, nonprofit organizations, schools, religious communities and neighborhoods. We can learn to look out and down, daring to see the world through the eyes of those whose future looms longer, and bleaker, than ours. We can lobby our Legislature and governor to adopt the sensible reforms promoted by child advocacy groups on behalf of our most vulnerable kids.