Every year we talk about the importance of children, and how more and more should be done in order to give them the care and attention that they deserve. We worry about MPS, we worry about after school and before school activities. We worry about safety of school buses and whether or not the best people are taking them to and from school. We even worry about safety on the playground and on the playing field. All of this is fine, but we are missing the starting point, we are missing the very beginning. Before they can say their first word, before they can ride a bus, or shoot a basket, they are babies, babies who need the same attention and worry. And yet, co-sleeping occurs.

In President Obama's recent inauguration speech, he mentioned that there was and is a need to make difficult decisions. That is what needs to happen here in the city of Milwaukee. No more should we accept excuses for bad choices. No more should we tolerate the abuse of alcohol and drugs and allow it to kill our children. No more should we allow people to decide that what one calls a cultural choice should be accepted as a reason for murder. Once we agree that being drunk and on drugs is not the way to parent and that punishment needs to be handed out when needed, maybe then we would not have senseless co-sleeping deaths in our city.