If this week's report from the Carnegie Corporation on the tragic plight of young children doesn't shame America into salvaging its most precious resource, it's hard to imagine what will.
For millions of American children, the crucial first three years of life are a time of peril, jeopardized by insufficient health care, substandard child care, poverty, violence and crumbling families.As many as half face one or more risk factors that could harm their future and deprive the country of the contributions they might otherwise make.
Though the New York-based philanthropic organization is to be applauded for sending the country a much-needed wake-up call, its study is much better at diagnosing the ailment than it is at prescribing the cure.
That's because the Carnegie prescription is long on calls for more government programs mingled with corporate assistance but short on appeals for a change in this nation's ailing social and moral climate.
After all, how big a dent can Washington make in child abuse and broken homes as long as the movie and TV industries keep glamorizing violence and sexual immorality?
How many day-care centers must be set up before Americans learn they are no substitute for an intact family in which at least one parent can give full-time attention to young children?
How high must the rates of delinquency and emotional problems among youngsters soar before Americans learn some things are more important than another TV set and a new car?
How long does America seriously think it can go without paying an increasingly steep price for the supposedly sophisticated practice of throwing rocks at traditional morality?
One mark of a healthy, civilized society is the extent to which it protects those least able to protect themselves. Government can and must do some repair work. But prevention is still better than cure. Until Americans adopt a more viable set of values, they will just be treating the symptoms rather than curing the underlying causes of what ails its youngest and most vulnerable citizens.