Mother and child, Portland, Oregon
On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.
The infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous.
On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances.
They build their houses with sand, and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves they
weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep. Children have their play on the
seashore of worlds.
Rabindranath Tagore, “On the Seashore”
On the imagined seashore of endless worlds children meet, shout, dance, build, smile, play. In the real world … children suffer direct assaults, from the skies and other forces, children suffer environmental assaults, children suffer. This is the world of the past week, the world we adults have built, are building.
May started with two articles concerning the state, or statelessness, of children in the United Kingdom. “How Britain’s housing crisis contributes to its declining healthy life expectancy”: “The number of people living in temporary accommodation has risen dramatically, reaching over 130,000 households at the beginning of 2025. This is a 156% increase compared with 2010, largely driven by the poor affordability and insecurity of the private rented sector and lack of social housing. Temporary accommodation is inadequate housing, particularly for children. Living in temporary accommodation was a contributing factor in the deaths of at least 104 children in England between 2019 and 2025, 76 of whom were under one year of age.” “UK’s sky-high rents are endangering children. Why won’t government act?”: “Adam’s untimely death wasn’t just caused by illness – it was the result of conditions that made illness inevitable; the daily violence shaping the lives of millions of children and young people entangled in an unforgiving private rented sector across the UK. While the effects of damp and mould on growing lungs have rightly gained salience, policymakers still turn a blind eye to how record-high rents threaten the life chances of our youngest and future generations … By the end of last year, 176,130 children were living in temporary accommodation in England, the twelfth consecutive record high and a 6% increase on the previous year.” Thanks to the “unforgiving” economic environment, in the United Kingdom children in low- and moderate-income households will live shorter, harder lives … if they live that long. It’s public knowledge, wrapped in public and private shrouds of silence.
Today, May 7, The Guardian reports “The Trump administration is deleting government data. From infant deaths to hunger, here are 5 ways it’s hurting Americans”. Of the five ways the Trump administration’s elimination of data, and of shared knowledge, is hurting “Americans”, three of them constitute a direct assault on children and youth: “Babies born in the US have a higher chance of dying than almost all other high-income countries. We’ve stopped tracking why …. Hunger is rampant in the US. But the government is no longer asking people about it …. More than half of trans youth have considered suicide. But any mention of trans people has been deleted from a critical survey.” The elected government of the United States does not care if babies born in the US die; does not care if “children skipped meals or didn’t eat for a whole day because their families did not have enough money”; does not care if children and youth consider or commit suicide. The State has declared war on its children, and asks them a simple question, “How do you like your death (so far), quick and painful, or slow and painful?”
Today, again, ProPublica reports, “Trump’s Deportation Campaign Has Harmed Scores of Kids With Tear Gas, Pepper Spray”: “Kids were in cars, at home and walking to school when tear gas or pepper spray left them wheezing, coughing and struggling to breathe. The weapons are especially toxic to kids.” ProPublica found that at least 79 children, some infants, were harmed by tear gas or pepper spray. One video “shows them hurling tear gas canisters at protesters without apparent provocation; then, with the streets already flooded with white smoke, a Customs and Border Protection agent wearing a body camera shoots pepper balls before muttering, “Fuck yeah,” and shouting, “Woo!””.
Children sitting in their homes are choking, crying, “I can’t breathe”. There, on the seashore of endless worlds where children meet, they can’t breathe. Woo!
(By Dan Moshenberg)
(Photo Credit: Leah Nash/ ProPublica)