The entire state of Florida should be declared an evacuation zone for human beings under 18. Not because ferocious hurricanes are bearing down, but because of the way its conservative “leaders” continue to endanger the youngest among us.

Florida is a crucible for casual violence foisted on children by egregious public policy which makes being a child or a young person in Florida dangerous.

This malign neglect directed towards children and teenagers is evident in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ continued pretense that there are no starving school-aged children, and that the state is more than capable of providing food and sustenance to them.

Organizations that provide food have long been raising the alarm about persistent hunger in the Sunshine State.

According to Feeding America, more than 2.3 million people endure hunger in Florida, with researchers estimating that between 613,000 and 800,000 of them are children.

However, DeSantis World ignores such realities because who knows better what we the people need than a petty, vindictive politician?

Child hunger in Florida has become nakedly partisan, as evidenced by DeSantis’ continued war against America’s poor, middle, and working classes. Twice in the past two years, the governor has refused about $500 million in federal monies for summer and school lunch programs. His people claim programs already operating in the state can more than handle the need.

In December 2023, Mallory McManus, deputy chief of staff of the Florida Department of Children and Families, told reporters: “We anticipate that our state’s full approach to serving children will continue to be successful this year without any additional federal programs that inherently always come with some federal strings attached.”

‘We’re good’

Advocates on the ground strenuously disagreed.

“One of the statements we continue to hear is that Florida already offers summer meal programs and therefore we’re good, we don’t really need a program such as Sun Bucks [a federal food program]. I surely wish that were true,” said Sky Beard, Florida program director of No Kid Hungry.

“The work we and other partners do demonstrates that’s an inaccurate perception. Less than 10% of children who participate in free and reduced lunch during the school year are also able to get a summer meal.”

No Kid Hungry Florida issued a report in 2024 that detailed food insecurity’s effects on low-income and even middle-income Florida families and children as a result of the increasingly untenable cost of living. The report found that 72% of Floridians found it more difficult to afford groceries compared to the year before.

“This burden isn’t limited to lower-income households; 60% of middle-income families, earning between $50,000 to $99,000, are also feeling the pinch. Amidst a growing affordability crisis, putting nutritious meals on the table has become a daunting task for many,” the report says.

Meanwhile, DeSantis and his MAGA Republicans allies are steadfastly rejecting federal funds — on ideological grounds — to expand Medicaid for the working poor, the vulnerable, and those mired in poverty.

Discarding children

The organization ProtectOurCare detailed DeSantis’ longstanding antipathy towards providing access to healthcare via the Affordable Care Act.

“As governor, Ron DeSantis has prevented hundreds of thousands of Florida residents — disproportionately people of color — from receiving coverage by refusing the expand Medicaid,” the organization said in a fact sheet on its website.

“Florida Republicans, led by Ron DeSantis since 2019, have been blocking Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, preventing up to 726,000 Floridians from obtaining Medicaid coverage, remaining a ‘hard no’ on expanding Medicaid even as millions of residents faced hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Of the hundreds of thousands of currently uninsured residents that would become eligible for the program if DeSantis expanded Medicaid under the ACA, around 57% are people of color, with Black residents disproportionately shut out of coverage, comprising 28 percent of those in the coverage gap despite forming just 17% of Florida overall.”

This indecent, immoral behavior and the scripted discarding of children is perhaps seen most profoundly with DeSantis and Republicans’ cold-hearted disregard for the slaughter of the state’s children because of America’s obsession with guns and Republicans’ obeisance to the National Rifle Association and the formidable gun lobby.

Florida’s next generation is dying in alarming numbers and neither DeSantis nor any of his Republican MAGA allies has raised a hand to protect young people as people have endured school shootings and suicides.

In Florida, like the rest of the United States, guns account for the most deaths among children and teenagers. According to CNN, gun deaths continue to be the leading cause of death for young people since surpassing car accidents in 2020.

Preventable

Everytown, America’s largest gun violence-prevention organization, tells us that “mass shootings haunt our nation’s collective conscience. Each breaking-news alert floods the nation with grief, fear, and anger at the countless acts of preventable violence.”

Perhaps most heartbreaking is that the vast majority of these deaths are preventable. Among children and teens:

• Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens.
• More than 2,800 children and teens die by gun homicide every year. For children under the age of 13, these gun homicides most frequently occur in the home and are often connected to domestic or family violence.
• Black children and teens in the U.S. are more than 18 times more likely than white children and teens of the same age to die by gun homicide.
• Firearms accounted for 18% of childhood deaths (ages 1 to 18) in 2023, the most recent year for which data are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 3,500 children died in gun-related incidents that year. That’s about five children lost for every 100,000 children in the United States. In no other comparable country are firearms within the top four causes of mortality among children, according to a KFF analysis.

This weak response has been profoundly influenced by the National Rifle Association and America’s gun lobby. All victims and communities get from DeSantis, Republicans, and the NRA are “thoughts and prayers,” and legislation to bolster school security and promote mental health services. Their prescriptions fall far short of dealing with this national nightmare.

Backtracking

Unbelievably, Gov. DeSantis has said he supports repealing the existing age requirements that prohibits 18-20-year-olds from buying rifles, shotguns, and other long guns from licensed gun dealers and handguns from private owners. He also advocates repealing red-flag laws and wants to allow Floridians to open-carry weapons.

Meanwhile, DeSantis on May 28 signed into law HB 6025, which eliminates restrictions on firearm and ammunition sales during locally declared emergencies.

The effects of gun violence are incalculable in terms of the loss of life, injuries, psychological damage, and economic fallout.

“Mass shootings in the U.S. have significant consequences for mental health, the economy, and community well-being,” according to a recent INFORMS Marketing Science Journal study. “They can lead to long-term mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and PTSD, not only for direct victims but also for those exposed to the events or living in affected communities … .”

Where is the anger; where is the outrage? Where are the voluminous public protests and demands that our “leaders” do their damn jobs. Are we to believe that the majority of Florida’s parents are cool with what our political leaders have done, are doing?

When it comes to stamping out violent crime, these people refuse to restrict unlawful gun purchases; implement universal background checks; safety training; safe and secure gun storage; implementing stricter provisions on gun owners carrying firearms in public spaces; concealed carry permit requirements and limitations; or limits on the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, which can cause extensive harm.

Theologian and activist Traci Blackmon captures the barbarism in which the MAGA Republican minority is so completely immersed:

“Who is this ‘god’ they worship? This god of guns but not of grace? This god of greed but not generosity? This god of the womb but not of the woman?”

And the children suffer.