--Fred Rogers, in an interview with Linda Wertheimer on NPR in February 1993 about what has changed and what has remained the same in 25 years of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”
Today, things arguably as traumatic as divorce touch the lives of children across the nation and around the worldwide. There are famine, disease, kidnapping, abuse and violence against them, and a recent development—shootings in schools in which both victims and perpetrators are still allowed to watch only G-rated films.
For this year’s Law Day, the interests of children are brought to the fore with the theme “Celebrate Your Freedom: Protecting the Best Interests of Our Children.” Law Day, observed on or around May 1st, is a special day focusing on our heritage of liberty under law, a national day of celebration officially designated by joint resolution of Congress in 1961.
This year’s theme seems especially fitting because the interests of children often do seem at risk in a world where laws are made and executed by adults, although they very often directly or indirectly affect children; where wars are fought by adults, although they leave children victims in their wake; where national and world policies about such disparate issues as the environment and the economy will, in the long-run, determine how rich or how poor our children’s lives will be in the fateful future when they become adults.
Every year, many national, legal and non-legal organizations, state and local bars, businesses, and schools join the American Bar Association (ABA), which initiated Law Day's observation, in conducting thousands of programs on how the rule of law makes our democracy possible. This year, the ABA lists the following cooperating organizations that are committed to observing Law Day and its children-focused theme. The long and varied list is evidence that where the interests of our children are concerned, there needs to be more than a village and more than the law to protect them.
American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, American Academy of Pediatrics, America's Promise, American Board of Trial Advocates, American Inns of Court Foundation, American Judicature Society, Anti-Defamation League, Association of Family & Conciliation Courts, Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Association of Youth Museums, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Center for Civic Education, Child Welfare League of America, Children's Defense Fund, Children's Rights Council (other Web site at www.info4parents.com), Close Up Foundation, Constitutional Rights Foundation, Constitutional Rights Foundation--Chicago, Federation of State Humanities Councils
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