Every Fourth of July, the nation celebrates freedom—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Fireworks fill the sky, flags line the streets, and speeches praise the promise of America. But for millions of abused and neglected children, that promise is still out of reach.
KARA’s Children’s Freedom Crusade is a call to make those founding ideals real for the children who need them most. It is a broad-based, grassroots movement, with special attention to lawmakers and policy makers, dedicated to one simple demand: children must have a genuine right to safety, healing, and a hopeful future.
The United States helped shape modern human-rights standards, yet it remains the only country that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the global treaty that recognizes children as rights-bearing human beings. That gap is more than symbolic. It reflects how often children in America are treated as extensions of adult authority rather than as people whose lives, liberty, and happiness deserve independent protection. Legally, they are chattel and cannot defend themselves in court and have not voice in the media or the State House.
This failure shows up in the most painful ways. Investigations and reports in places like Minnesota have documented children killed by caregivers even after those children were known to Child Protective Services. Being “in the system” did not mean being safe. These common tragedies are not about partisan politics; they are about whether a child has any meaningful right to survive abuse, escape danger, and receive care.
The Children’s Freedom Crusade is grounded in a simple, nonpartisan idea: no serious moral, religious, or political framework can accept preventable abuse, untreated trauma, or the denial of affordable medical care when a child’s life or health is at stake. Respecting families and faith is important—but it cannot mean allowing children to suffer or die because adults’ beliefs.
KARA is small but determined. The Children’s Freedom Crusade will grow through cost‑effective outreach: social media, online presentations, podcasts, college/business collaborations, and partnerships with existing child‑advocacy efforts like CASA, Safe Passage, Foster Advocates, and others. The movement invites people to get involved at whatever level they can—sharing information, attending online events, organizing campus and community discussions, volunteering, and supporting child‑focused reforms.
This is a national effort with room for international voices, grounded in a Fourth of July question: What does freedom mean for a child living with abuse or neglect? If life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are to be more than words, then children must have:
- The right to be safe in their homes and placements.
- The right to lifesaving free or affordable medical and mental‑health care.
- The right to a voice in systems that decide their fate.
- The right to grow up in stable, loving families and communities.
KARA’s goal for the first year of the Children’s Freedom Crusade is clear: reach at least 100,000 new followers across its website and social platforms. That level of public engagement would show that the narrative is starting to change. When more people are willing to stand for at-risk children, change will come.
This Fourth of July and beyond, the Children’s Freedom Crusade asks a simple question of every adult: Will you help make “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” true for abused and neglected children where you live? If the answer is yes, join KARA (here), read and share our messaging, and help build a child‑first movement that puts freedom where it belongs: in the hands and hearts of our youngest Americans.
KIDS AT RISK ACTION / KARA / INVISIBLE CHILDREN
#ChildrensFreedomCrusade
#KidsAtRiskAction
#InvisibleChildren
#LifeLibertyHappiness
#ProChild
#ChildSafetyNow
#EndChildAbuse
#ChildRights
#FourthOfJulyFreedom
#FreedomForChildren
#ProtectOurKids
#TraumaInformed
#ChildAdvocacy
