200,000 STAND UP, SPEAK OUT FOR KIDS.

Byline: Deb Richmann Associated Press 

America's children got a symbolic hug Saturday from 200,000 people who rallied here to reaffirm their belief that in a nation with ``the biggest wallet in the industrialized world,'' no child should be left behind.

The Stand for Children rally was billed as a national day of community renewal and commitment to the nation's young. Conservative groups criticized the event as little more than a party for liberals who want to increase government spending.

``We stand today at the Lincoln Memorial as American families and as an American community to commit ourselves to putting our children first,'' said rally organizer Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund.

``We commit ourselves to building a just America that leaves no child behind and we commit ourselves to ensuring all our children have a healthy and a safe passage to adulthood.''

The rally was not about partisan politics, she said, and no politician spoke. And it was not, she said, about inflating government.

``We do not stand here advocating big government,'' she told the crowd. ``We stand here advocating just government.''

People of all ages lined both sides the Reflecting Pool in front of the memorial and stretched toward the Washington Monument. Carrying state flags and clapping their hands, thousands of children and adults began the rally by marching shoulder to shoulder across the Memorial Bridge, which spans the Potomac River.

They carried signs that said, ``Politicians Were Children Once Too'' and ``Kids Rule'' and ``Education is Not a Privilege, It's a Right.''

U.S. Park Police estimated the crowd at 200,000.

``People need to realize children are our future, and if we don't pay attention to them we won't have a future,'' said Jessica Micinski, 12, of Beulah, Mich., a Girl Scout who marched across the bridge.

Edelman picked up the theme in her speech: ``Some of our children are tracked for Princeton and Yale and some of our children are tracked for prison and jail - for about the same cost.''

Celebrities, including ``Stand and Deliver'' star Edward James Olmos, ``NYPD Blue's'' Kim Delaney, actress Rosie O'Donnell and fashion model Iman, also joined the rally.

Participants said the rally was not so much about outlining a political agenda as it was about creating a movement that would spark more public debate about who should have first dibs on tax dollars.

``If we're not taking the time to say that this is a priority, then the leaders aren't going to recognize the needs,'' said Jennifer Sullivan, a 24-year-old social worker in Long Island, N.Y. ``The laws are being made by people who have no idea what's going on. I don't think people really believe that there are kids who are hungry.''

Edelman said the event was a day about unity and community, not controversy.

``We have the biggest wallet in the industrialized world,'' she said. ``But we have a far smaller will to share it with our children. Is America so afflicted that we are unable to strike a better balance between the few at the top and the needs of the many in the middle and the bottom?''

Susan Pugliese, who administers nine Head Start centers in and around Painesville, Ohio, said she came to Washington because the ``cause is right.''

``I have goose bumps,'' she said. ``We need to get the message out that things aren't improving for our children.''

Pugliese and her two friends, Diana Chesney, 45, and Rose Romans, 38, sang tunes from the 1960s during their nearly 400-mile car ride to Washington.

Edelman said she organized the rally, co-sponsored by 3,700 organizations, after spending another year watching children suffer from neglect, abuse and the breakdown of moral, family and community values.

However, conservatives, who were not invited, criticized the event as a confluence of liberal groups hanging on to big government policies at a time when Americans want less government.

``While the Stand for Children event is correct in calling attention to the disastrous condition of America's children, it is important to recognize that the children are suffering . . . because the U.S. welfare system has failed,'' said Robert Rector, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

``Higher welfare payments do not help children; they increase dependence and illegitimacy,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Lacretia Johnson of Maryland entertains a chi ld.

Associated Press

(2) A crowd estimated at 200,000 people assemble near the Lincoln Memorial for the Stand for Children rally.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Photo Service