By Bruce Lesley
With all the big-money lobbyists on Capitol Hill, it’s sometimes hard to find a public servant who’s looking out for the little guy. But this year, Oregon’s Sen. Ron Wyden spent a lot of time and energy looking out for the littlest of us all: children.
Wyden shepherded through Congress important legislation that will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, including more than 9,500 in Oregon every year, scarred by abuse or neglect. Foster children have faced trauma most of us cannot imagine and no child should have to endure. Worse yet, they are often victimized again — in too many cases by sex traffickers who see them as easy prey, and more often by a system working so hard to protect their safety that it quietly robs them of their childhood…