The Bitter Idealist

Child Labor may be a thing of the past in the United States, but in Iraq, children are being trained for worse work than they ever experienced during the height of their exploitation in America.

These Iraqi children are being trained as child soldiers.

In an Al-Qaida video, released last week to the American press, children as young as ten were shown interrogating and even executing prisoners, and employing other tactics commonly used by militant groups in the region. It is believed this footage will be used in propaganda to recruit more youth into groups hungry for fighters.

Now American troops in Iraq will be faced not only with the challenge of quelling sectarian violence, but the possibility that children may become targets in combat. Children are supposed to be protected, and their death is supposed to be rare and tragic. This may no longer be possible.

“A bigger, better bottle bill.” That’s what the New York State Public Interest Research Group calls the new effort to extend to non-carbonated beverages the five cent can and bottle deposit.

Readers of this column will remember that I am a big proponent of recycling. I cannot bear to throw away something I could cart to the store, insert into a machine and make five cents off of. I am excited to see the landmark bottle bill beefed up to meet the consumer and environmental demands of the 21st century.

Today, New Yorkers can return only soda and beer containers for profit. Many other beverage containers and non-returnables must be left by curb on garbage day, never making it to the recycling center. Holding onto them bears no tangible reward. Many of these cans and bottles end up needlessly littering streets and filling landfills.

Under the new law, iced tea, juice, lemonade, red bull, bottled water and milk containers will all be returnable.

They come to school every day. They come to learn, to “better themselves.” To work toward a degree, that concrete goal that will move them forward, and hopefully upward. They go home every night to study, to read, to freeze in cold apartments where the heat stays off, or to sit in dark apartments with just one light on.

In short, they’re poor.

10 percent of college students live below the poverty line. While often written off as a temporary condition that will be made up for by the increased job options and higher salaries available to college graduates, after graduation the statistics remain the same. Students and young people living in college towns, like Albany, Schenectady and Troy, are even more likely to be poor, according to the 2000 U.S. census.