{"id":27747,"date":"2026-05-07T09:50:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T16:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=27747"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:50:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T16:50:49","slug":"on-which-seashore-of-endless-worlds-do-children-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=27747","title":{"rendered":"On which seashore of endless worlds do children meet?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Mother and child, Portland, Oregon<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.
\nThe infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous.
\nOn the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances.
\nThey build their houses with sand, and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves they
\nweave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep. Children have their play on the
\nseashore of worlds.
\nRabindranath Tagore, \u201cOn the Seashore<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

On the imagined seashore of endless worlds children meet, shout, dance, build, smile, play. In the real world \u2026 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.<\/p>\n

May started with two articles concerning the state, or statelessness, of children in the United Kingdom. \u201cHow Britain\u2019s housing crisis contributes to its declining healthy life expectancy<\/a>\u201d: \u201cThe number of people living in temporary accommodation has\u00a0risen dramatically<\/a>, 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\u00a0deaths<\/a>\u00a0of at least 104 children in England between 2019 and 2025, 76 of whom were under one year of age.\u201d \u201cUK\u2019s sky-high rents are endangering children. Why won\u2019t government act?<\/a>\u201d: \u201cAdam\u2019s untimely death wasn\u2019t just caused by illness \u2013 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\u00a0rightly gained salience<\/a>, policymakers still turn a blind eye to how\u00a0record-high rents<\/a>\u00a0threaten the life chances of our youngest and future generations \u2026 By the end of last year,\u00a0176,130 children were living in temporary accommodation\u202fin England<\/a>, the twelfth consecutive record high and a 6% increase on the previous year.\u201d Thanks to the \u201cunforgiving\u201d economic environment, in the United Kingdom children in low- and moderate-income households will live shorter, harder lives \u2026 if they live that long. It\u2019s public knowledge, wrapped in public and private shrouds of silence.<\/p>\n

Today, May 7, The Guardian<\/em> reports \u201cThe Trump administration is deleting government data. From infant deaths to hunger, here are 5 ways it\u2019s hurting Americans<\/a>\u201d. Of the five ways the Trump administration\u2019s elimination of data, and of shared knowledge, is hurting \u201cAmericans\u201d, three of them constitute a direct assault on children and youth: \u201cBabies born in the US have a higher chance of dying than almost all other high-income countries.\u00a0We\u2019ve stopped tracking why<\/strong> \u2026. Hunger is rampant in the US. But the government\u00a0is no longer asking people about it<\/strong> \u2026. More than half of trans youth have considered suicide. But\u00a0any mention of trans people has been deleted<\/strong>\u00a0from a critical survey.\u201d The elected government of the United States does not care if babies born in the US die; does not care if \u201cchildren skipped meals or didn\u2019t eat for a whole day because their families did not have enough money\u201d; 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, \u201cHow do you like your death (so far), quick and painful, or slow and painful?\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, again, ProPublica<\/em> reports, \u201cTrump\u2019s Deportation Campaign Has Harmed Scores of Kids With Tear Gas, Pepper Spray<\/a>\u201d: \u201cKids 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.\u201d ProPublica<\/em> found that at least 79 children, some infants, were harmed by tear gas or pepper spray. One video \u201cshows them hurling tear gas canisters at protesters\u00a0without apparent provocation<\/a>; then, with the streets already flooded with white smoke, a Customs and Border Protection agent wearing a body camera shoots pepper balls before muttering, \u201cFuck yeah,\u201d and shouting, \u201cWoo!\u201d\u201d.<\/p>\n

Children sitting in their homes are choking, crying, \u201cI can\u2019t breathe<\/a>\u201d. There, on the seashore of endless worlds where children meet, they can\u2019t breathe. Woo!<\/p>\n

(By Dan Moshenberg)<\/p>\n

(Photo Credit: Leah Nash\/\u00a0ProPublica<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27749,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27747\/revisions\/27749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}