It's time for a revolution in values and political priorities which we can and must accomplish if we believe we can; if we speak out passionately and unceasingly; and if we organize effectively for our children's sakes.

Step 1. Seize this historic and prosperous moment to provide our children with an alternative vision for living.
Now is the time to get America to make a positive rather than negative compact with our children to ensure every child receives health care; to give children the chance to get ready for and learn in school; to end child poverty and hunger and homelessness; to protect children from gun violence, abuse, and neglect; and to provide children attentive, caring adults and mentors in non-school hours. And now is the time to give our children a sense of being valued by structuring family and community life and public policies with the needs of children as the first rather than last concern. In every sphere of our personal, community, and national life we adults should ask ourselves three questions:

1. Would we want our child or grandchild or any child to see, know about, or emulate our conduct?
2. Will our actions or inactions make it easier or harder for children to grow up healthier, safer, and compassionate?
3. Will our actions make it easier or harder for parents to raise healthy children and to balance work and family responsibilities?

Step 2. Strengthen women's voices, values, and power in every sphere and crucial institution of American life.
Every federal and state senator and representative and every governor should be adopted by a well-informed, well-organized group of determined women and their allies with a focused agenda for children. And women when they gain power must not seek to emulate the values and actions of many men in power but bring a new moral dimension drawn from the insight of their struggles and marginality. We must insist and work together on one or two groundbreaking investments and protections for children each year until the whole of our children's needs are met and our children's compact is realized. Single-minded focus and message, clear policy goals, persistence, and organized clout are the recipe for success for children.

Step 3. Vote for and with children and monitor how those you vote for protect children.
Be a good citizen and citizen-mentor for your children and grandchildren. Every parent and grandparent, aunt and uncle should get out and vote and take your child, grandchild, niece, nephew, or a neighbor's child with you. Let's teach children by example the importance of voting in a democracy. And let's vote for children. Women who waited 143 years for the right to exercise our citizenship and Blacks who gained the franchise only after decades of struggle have a special responsibility to honor the sacrificial efforts of our ancestors. That only 55.5 percent of women and 50.7 of Blacks and only 30 percent of 7.3 million eligible young voters age 18-19 (who did not have to wait or struggle at all) voted in the last election is a wasted opportunity. What if we all voted for health insurance coverage for all parents and children in 2000?

Step 4. Hold governors, state legislators, county and city officials in every state accountable for protecting children in this era of devolution.
Children's Defense Fund will release an annual report card on how well states are investing in and protecting children to inform and help you monitor your state's performance for children. You will see how well your state is serving children in a number of key areas like implementation of the Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid and how your state compares to other states. Too many states are dragging their feet, doing poor outreach, erecting bureaucratic hurdles which parents and children cannot jump over; are not investing significant amounts of state tobacco settlement monies on children; are not using surplus and budget dollars to help children; or are waiting on federal hand-outs rather than investing enough of their own dollars on Head Start, child care, and health for their state's children. If states, counties, and cities made a commitment to reach out to and see that every child and family received available benefits, millions of children could escape hunger, homelessness, and poverty.

Step 5. Counter the common excuses of those who neglect children's needs.
These excuses include the following: (1) "It costs too much to eliminate child poverty." Yet the moral costs to America's soul and ideals of not eliminating child poverty is beyond measure and the economic costs of permitting 13.5 million children to remain poor exceed the costs of its elimination. Economists estimate $130 billion in lost productivity for every year we let one in five children live in poverty. (2) "It is not the right time." It is always the right time to do the right thing. During economic downturns, children should not be the first to suffer huge budget cuts nor should they be the last to benefit during economic upturns. (3) "Nothing works." Many things work which we simply do not provide to all eligible children. Less than one half of eligible children get a Head Start; only 49% of poor children eligible for food stamps which stave off hunger get them; wonderful model schools abound; few if any whole school systems educate all their children well. (4) "Children are not my responsibility. They are their parents' responsibility." Parents should do everything they can to raise and support their children but if they work and their employer does not provide health coverage, their children should not be denied health care. (5) "The poor should not have babies they cannot support." No one should have children they can't support emotionally as well as financially. Who among us has the right to decide who should bear a child or blame a child for parents she or he did not choose? My Bible tells me to help rather than judge or blame the poor or the non-poor who neglect their children. And nowhere does it tell me to blame or punish infants and toddlers and young children for being hungry or abused. (6) "It's class warfare to talk about redistributing income to the poor." No one raises this issue as government policies have historically (and currently) redistributed income from the middle class and poor to the rich through tax breaks and subsidies for wealthy corporations and individuals. Who should have the first call on society's resources: them who need them most or those who have the most?

Step 6. Never lose hope and faith or doubt that change is possible.
American slavery and segregation ended because enough people said enough. Wars may never stop but we must not stop trying to eliminate them and speaking out against violence or believing that we can build a world without war for our children. Racism may raise its ugly head after an era setting God's child against God's child, but we must never condone it, praise it, glorify it, spread it, or cease trying to rid our minds and hearts and communities of its debilitating virus. The poor may have always been with us but we can decrease their numbers and their sufferings rather than ignore or treat them unfairly in our public policies and private conduct.

Marian Wright Edelman is the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. Her most recent book is Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors, published in 1999.