Inspired by the Kony 2012 video, I've decided WE need to do something about an even greater children's tragedy that's unfolding right now. That's the one not in Uganda, but in the US.

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

Inspired by the Kony 2012 video, I’ve decided WE need to do something about an even greater children’s tragedy that’s unfolding right now. That’s the one not in Uganda, but in the United States.

It’s time to save the kids of America. Millions of American children in the grip of a pandemic of poverty and poor health.

According to UNICEF, more than 20% of American children live in households with incomes less than half of the median, the highest number in the industrialised world. According to a US report, 17 million American children are living in households without enough food to eat.

More than 10% of American children have less than 10 books in the house, the third lowest in the OECD. The United States also has the third-lowest number of late teens in education. This situation looks like it will get worse: Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have both promised to cut education funding and the Tea Party wants to end federal education funding altogether, because the Founding Fathers didn’t explicitly refer to it. The goal, apparently, is to return the US to the education levels it achieved in 1787.

And, tragically, the mortality of children under five is higher in the US than in countries like Serbia, UAE, Cuba and Belarus. For African-American children it is much worse — they are twice as likely to die before they are 20 as white children. UNICEF shows the US has the highest number of overweight teens in the industrialised world, at 25%. It has the second highest number of deaths of children from accident and injuries, and the highest number of teen births.

The United States is one of the most dangerous places in the industrialised world to be a child.

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But there are other threats to kids in the United States. Sinister religious groups brainwash children.

Others, supported by the US government itself, try to turn children into soldiers. There’s even a truly sinister religious group that urges “revolution” and threatens to “fight … in the most remote corners of the world” using young people lured into its clutches by slick YouTube videos.

And hundreds of thousands of kids are taught bizarre ideas such as “intelligent design” that equip them poorly to function in the 21st century. Disturbing religious propaganda fills the public airwaves …

We need armed intervention in the United States, to send in military advisers and help authorities there round up those guilty of these crimes: the politicians who won’t spend on health and education; the food companies and media giants who play a role in the unhealthy lifestyles of American kids, the evangelical churchmen who brainwash kids, the people who give children semi-automatic weapons.

We need to send this intervention force into America immediately. Children are suffering.

How can YOU help?

First, “like” this story on Facebook. Facebook is a vast privacy-destroying monster that will stop at nothing to accumulate information about you to sell to marketers. Liking an article will install software enabling it to track you better, strengthening Facebook’s revenues and thus the American economy.

Second, retweet this story. Retweeting shows that you care enough about the kids of America to move your cursor over to a word and click on it.

Third, buy a wristband. It will be made in China. But China is America’s biggest creditor, so what’s good for China is good for America. Put it with your other wristbands. Ignore the cynical criticisms of “wristband fatigue”.

Most of all, reject the allegations of “slacktivism” and “clicktivism”. Just knowing about the terrible condition of children in America automatically helps, no matter where you are in the world.