Cleo Fields: “today I had a very, very important visit from my district. I had a visit from a very, very young kid, whose name is…”

“today I had a very, very important visit from my district. I had a visit from a very, very young kid, whose name is Jonathan Edwards. He is a kindergarten student. He is 6-years of age. He walked into my office and he had some little red buttons, and he pinned a little red sticker on each member of my staff. He walked into my office and he indeed stuck one on me. And it indicated ``Don't hurt the children.'' Don't hurt the kids. I gave him a big hug and we talked about some of the things that were taking place in Baton Rouge, and we also talked about what is taking place here in Washington. He walked out of the office, Mr. Speaker, and I could not help but think about what is taking place right here in Washington, DC as this little kid tried to make some sense of what is taking place here in the midst of this debate. I thought about Healthy Start, and I thought about the cut of $10 million in a program that is so important to our young people. I thought about the WIC Program, $25 million will be cut; 50 to 100 thousand expected mothers will be taken away from this program. I thought about the fact there are so many babies that die, Mr. Speaker, after they are born, because their parents do not have proper prenatal care. And I was looking at little Jonathan, and it made me think what shameful condition in this country when we take money away from mothers who want to have productive children, who want to bring birth to kids who can live and who can survive.”