55/365 Children don't belong in Vegas

I walked the strip one morning about 9:30 am.  Things were still quiet and calm.  But by about 11 am, things start reving up.  The billboards for prostitutes start driving up and down the strip, the hoardes of young bachelor and bacholerettes stumble out of their hotels with beer bottles in hand, and the guys handing out prostitute trading cards with naked women on them begin hounding every guy who walks by.  It was a hot morning and I walked by a woman and two young children sitting on the dirty sidewalk.  She had a sign saying she had four children, no husband, was far from home and needed money for rent and food.  I sat down next to her on the sidewalk to try and talk with her, but she really didn't want a human connection...she just kept asking me for money. I felt so bad for the kids, they were dirty, hot, tired and bored.  The littlest, a boy of about four, kept pointing to my camera and then hiding behind his mom.  I thought he didn't want his picture taken, but the mom told me he wanted me to take his picture.  So I pointed my camera at him and he came in close and looked right in it.  I took the photo and then showed it to him.  He smiled shyly and hid behind his mom again.  I gave mom some money and then walked on. I saw them three more times that morning as they moved from spot to spot, and my heart ached for them, each time I saw them.  Kids belong in parks, and playgrounds, and ice cream shops and zoos...not sitting on a sidewalk littered with cigarette butts, broken beer bottles, and pornography.