Alternatives

Apologies for the absence. As you may guess, things have been rough this summer.

So I read a post by the ACLU the other day: https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/all-kids-nebraska-need-love . I sometimes think about how lucky my kids are to have been born in America in the 21st century. Even 100-200 years ago in early America they would have been regulated to homelessness, poorhouses, asylums, jail. Actually, they probably would have stayed with their birth mother. Did you know that the first child welfare laws were actually based on animal abuse laws?

Then I read this article about traumatized kids put in solitary, and I wonder if we've really come that far? When our legislative and voting bodies don't see the humanity in kids. I'll admit, in the daily grind of parenting I sometimes loose the compassion I need to have for my kid. Most of the time it's there, but not always. I can't imagine, even then, putting my kid in solitary confinement, locking her up and isolating her from people, family, and love.

Every kid deserves those things. Every kid.

Our government is responsible for kids when parents are deemed unfit. These are citizens, vessels of hope and should be receiving goodwill and compassion. Not simply be a budgetary number to be cut. A number to be confined.

Stand up and speak out.