Suffer the children

“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Bill Gates on Elon Musk, May, 2025

Lifesaving food and medicines were denied internationally as DOGE, Musk, irradicated the US Agency for International Development – slashed it, irrevocably as it also cancelled grants to hospitals that helped women from transmitting HIV to their babies.

Musk, no longer chainsawing domestic and international policies and grants, has lately, in The Economist July interview, acknowledged the pace and suddenness of his DOGE cuts of funding and long-time initiatives likely caused unnecessary “friction.” Oddly, Musk continued that the Gates Foundation should have stepped in to bridge the negatives when he, Musk, went “too fast.” Gates should have saved Musk and the world from his acts although in 2012, Musk, along with a cadre of ultra wealthies, signed the Giving Pledge: to contribute at least 50% of their wealth to charity in or after their lifetimes. Musk had his own deep pockets,
In the same Economist interview, Musk vehemently claimed 0.0 children died as a result of his USAID actions though multiple agencies report 700,000+ child victims/deaths have been counted as arising from the pull out of USAID medicines, foods, aids – adults add hundreds of thousands more.

Adamantly anti-government handouts, the wealthiest person on the plant is beholding to the US for a king’s ransom. Over the first two decades of Musk ventures, the US government provided him over $38 billion in the form of loans, tax credits, subsidies, manufacturing incentives, and regulatory credits – add to this his 52 ongoing US contracts. DOGE would more appropriately stand for Dependent on Government Enrichments. Billionaires are up globally to 3,482 – increasing at an ever-faster clip. Just 700 of the 1200 US billionaires have a combined net wealth exceeding the worth of the entire bottom half of Americans (165 million).

Mark, Matthew, and Luke all have scripture with Christ’s plea to “Suffer the Children” -include them, bring them forth, forbid them not. However, since January, 2025, children abroad have suffered as have domestic children robbed of grants, precluded from policies already passed for their well-fare and growth – food, education, health.

The spectacular cruelty and corruption of Musk, DOGE, aligns well with the maneuvers fostered against children by Robert F. Kennedy Jr* regarding children’s health: deaths from measles (94% unvaccinated kids), the falsehoods about vaccines and autism, the shredding of health and environmental regulations, and stark reductions/cancellations of research by the 10’s of million$ for children – moneys already appropriated by Congress. Measles in the US were eradicated in 2000 and gifted back to the US by RFJ Jr with 4,800 deaths in 2025-2026. After famously ranting against the evils of vaccines, RFJ Jr now admits that he and his six children are all, totally vaccinated –none with autism. Backpedaling on the MMR vaccine (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) as a measles outbreak skyrockets, RFK J is saying “A measles vaccine is effective, it stops measles in about 97% of cases. So people should get vaccinated.” Not all are.

The “Big Beautiful Bill” made tax reductions from 2017 permanent while tax provisions favoring high-income households and corporations expanded. The bill’s attractive benefits for the rich will be paid for primarily by reductions in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, tax credits, clean air initiatives and student loans. Free meals for children are denied to millions of low-income, poverty level families – children to go hungry to learn.

Erasing Head Start is Kennedy’s next target as HHS removes 1,000 provisions for local and state control that regulated these highly effective programs. Structural changes for Head Start centers go into effect in October including removal of limits on class size, removal of routine annual health screenings, slashes to funding student expansion. Studies, over decades, indicate positives accrued: increased readiness for school, increased likelihood of completion of high school and attendance in college, lower poverty. Commencing in 1965, with Johnson’s War on Poverty, Head Start has had 6 decades, 60 years, of positive impacts now negated by a Secretary* unworthy of his name – a Junior so distance from a trio of Kennedy legends.

“You judge a society by how it treats its citizens. We must do our best to ensure that every child can live in comfort and security with the best possible education”. Melania Trump

*Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment.” RFK Junior siblings

Kathy Herald-Marlowe lives in Sharon.