INVISIBLE CHILDREN

I’m pleased that Sarah Palin chose a title that would stress heartfulness & compassion.

I’m looking forward to reading her constructive ideas for helping America’s weakest and most vulnerable citizens.

So far, Sarah has not shown support or many workable ideas for the millions of children that are reported as abused children each year, nor for the educators, social & health workers, grandparents, foster, & adoptive parents that struggle every day to help these children lead normal lives.

As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I’ve come to appreciate people that vote for affordable day care, crisis nurseries, early childhood programs, and I have come to understand the economic practicality of doing so.

It causes me great pain to watch as politicians put their own short term gains in front of sound public policy year after year.

Don’t support day care? I was ordered to take children away from a decent father because he could not afford it. The county would save no money by taking his four children and putting them in foster homes. Who voted for this?

On the issues of child protection and juvenile justice our nation has reached a pinnacle of wrong headed policies and near sighted politicians willing to sacrifice very useful people and programs for their own professional gain.

Don’t support crisis nurseries? The impact sex abuse, violence, or drug abuse is the trauma that lives on forever in a child. Crisis nurseries work and they save big money when children avoid the terrors of a violent home.

These are the children that can’t cope with life or school. These are the children we can help while they are young (and it is a fiscal bargain). 80% of youth aging out of foster care are leading dysfunctional lives.

Save money by incarcerating children and longer sentencing?

New York and California spend about $250,000 per year per child in their juvenile justice systems. 25% of America’s juvenile criminals are charged as adults and those that enter the system spend most of their lives in and out of prison.

Instead of lobbying for more and better programs to interrupt the cycle of abuse and violence, selfish politicians throw rocks at the people doing the hard work and make the false argument that less support for schools and children and more jails will solve our problems.

America has 5% of the world population & 25% of the world’s prison population. 13 million prison and jail releases last year in America.

Blaming teachers for failing schools is not much different than blaming social workers when a baby is found in a dumpster, or the officer for the crimes committed in the neighborhood (but it gets politicians elected because we are gullible voters).

We are to blame for electing politicians that mistakenly think that they can have safe streets by building more and bigger prisons, better schools by not providing resources to schools or troubled youth while teachers struggle to deal with the growing problems of mental health, violence, and poverty in their classrooms.

The Prozac, Ritalin, and other psychotropic medications being used by very young children has grown exponentially and complicates the lives of all those working or living with them.

Education is complicated by problems that did not exist thirty years ago. Social work has changed and our institutions need change and our support.

We have programs that mend troubled children and the ability to help kids make it through school with the right help.

I’m sure that if Sarah missed it in this book, she’ll give us some constructive ideas in the next.

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