Thank you for your commitment to the innocent youth of our stressed country. As a child developmentalist, I see that the very youngest babies are frequently misunderstood, yes even abused, by adults who want to parent and provide care well enough but just don't have much information, and are frankly often clueless, about infant development. Protection is needed to insure that the first two years have the maximum potential for mental and physical well-being. What may seem like common sense can actually be very inappropriate care provisions from the conventional viewpoint because babies honestly aren't seen as full human beings in the mainstream world.  Elizabeth, Ojai

Thank you for your work in the Senate. I appreciate your diligence and the time you have devoted to public service. I also appreciate the freedom to disagree with your interpretation of how best to protect the children of our nation; specifically, I STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH THE MANDATORY REPORTING REQUIREMENT OF S. 1877. The way our legal system is set up I think it will lead to allegations of abuse or neglect against innocent families as well as privacy violations. It will greatly increase the federal government's role in social services, clutter the system with more regulations, and consequently make it more difficult to find children who are truly at risk. It leads us dangerously close to becoming a police state. I appreciate your comments on ethics, but ethics are not morality. At the heart of child abuse is a lack of morals. Morals are based on fundamental principles of right conduct, rather than on law. As much as we disapprove of the behavior, we cannot legislate morality. Regina, Los Altos