Can You Hear the Children Crying?

Hey, I wanna talk about DHS in Oklahoma. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that they kill children here. Let’s examine this statement…from the beginning.

We have given the responsibility to a government agency to safeguard the random children in our society, the innocents with the misfortune to be born into violent, drug-addled, destitute, crazy, evil circumstances. They’re being beat, starved, tortured, molested, and as a society, we can’t have this. We pay our taxes to address this. (Mind you, this despite all evidence that government is inept and corrupt.) We do not consider any other option except “government.”

More often than not, the case worker dives in and realizes the whole situation is jacked up. All the relatives are weirdos. For example, exactly who is the father? Oh, he’s in jail. The mom’s a crackhead or methwhore. The biological grandparents don’t follow the rules (meaning they deliver the child to the unfit parent). Another possible caregiver is facing molestation charges. These people breed, and we’re stuck trying to take care of the offspring.

Foster homes? Yeah, I knew one person who practically ran a business (very profitable) of taking in children so she and her husband could pocket the support money. Neither had a real job. They left the kids at home unsupervised while they vacationed at Disney World.

Government-ran care facilities? We’ve heard those horror stories, too. Sexual molestation by the staff…Where to put these poor children?

The case workers and courts choose the best option they can. It doesn’t work. The child dies. We have so many here that die, it has become commonplace in our media.

The latest is a 5-year-old girl named Serenity. That's her picture at the beginning of this story. Her mom is up on charges for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy. The grandparents let the child stay the night with the mom and her boyfriend, who is a convicted sex offender, says DHS. She’s given to the dad who has never had anything to do with her. He tells them he doesn’t want her. He works the night shift at the front desk at a south-side hotel near me. Are there daycares open all night where he can drop her off? What is he supposed to do? He’s suddenly saddled with a child, against his will. He takes her to work, sneaks her into empty rooms, tells her to be still and quiet, so he’s not caught. Also, who is going to watch her while he sleeps during the day? There are two documented incidents of black eyes and bruises. He had her less than a month before he beat her to death. (The media says her body was found in his apartment, but I think she was killed at the hotel.) And DHS people thought this was the best option. An ex-girlfriend with kids by him said she would have been happy to tell them she doesn’t let her kids be near him because he’s violent. TWO documented incidents…

Caseworkers will tell you how they have 45 cases when they’re only supposed to have 15. They’ll tell you how they don’t make enough money to do their job properly, in a manner in which children don’t die. I fail to see how numbers on a paycheck justify a job poorly done. Overload is not the same thing as underpaid. Why would we want to pay them more? They suck. They seem to lack character. Oh, and here comes the proof.

Two DHS employees are to be fired over this latest deal, the caseworker and his supervisor.

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-dhs-workers-say-they-will-fight-expected-firings/article/3603942?custom_click=lead_story_title

This story is the result of the media jumping like an obedient dog when the employees’ lawyer snaps his fingers. Yes, a press conference at the lawyer’s office so the employees can be given a forum to whine about how they are made a scapegoat, and they’re going to fight! (Oh, nice, you and I will be paying the lawyer bill to counter-attack and defend DHS firing them.)

The supervisor particularly disgusts me as she cries that she’ll never be able to find a new job (and obviously it’s because “they” fired her, not because of her gross incompetence). She laments that she will be reduced to waiting tables! Does she not realize she killed a little girl due to her stoopidity? She admits “somebody” should have called the ex-girlfriend. Perhaps…her? The case supervisor? Maybe she could have supervised and had someone make a quick call. Who is the “somebody” she’s referring to, for God’s sake? And did the newspaper cut the part where the two express sorrow and regret? Is it too much to hope for, that some judge dismisses these imbeciles’ case and saves us a little money?

They need to move up the chain and fire everyone along the way. Whatever bureaucratic, inefficient, ineffective system they’ve created, IT DOESN’T WORK. Sound the alarm. Ditch the old way, create a better way. Think creatively. Children are dying here – it’s worth the effort.

So, who sits on top of this pile of crap. His name is Howard Hendrick, a Republican state senator for 11 years, then appointed by Governor Keating, an R, then retained by Governor Henry, a D. He’s been in this job for decades. His degree was law. His experience was politics. And for some reason, this qualified him to run DHS. I did not notice any real-world experience. Sitting on committees doesn’t count, sorry. How can he not call for a massive overhaul of the system? Why do people choose to be the villain instead of the hero? Is he gutless? Or stoopid? Fire him.

The current governor, Mary Fallin, an R, appointed two new people to an oversight commission this month. (People sit on that commission for 9-year terms. Really.) She’s the governor, why can’t she just fire the guy and find a new visionary. Why dicker around with commissions and existing power structure (the commission hires and fires the director)? How many children have died on this guy’s watch? I’d like to see a bar graph on that, maybe a pie chart with all the children’s different injuries or perhaps how many incident reports were filed before ultimately death. What about Kelsey Smith-Briggs, Aja Johnson, Melissa Ellison…all the many others who suffer but don’t qualify as dead yet.


So, what does this commission exactly do? You’ll love this story. It’s more like what they do not do…they DO NOT read reports or congressional audits or lawsuit papers or expect the agency to comply with law. I love their excuses – “my eyes would glaze over!” and “I’m not superwoman!” How silly of us to expect that they read. And think. And oversee. The chairman of the commission thought the audit was “very, very favorable.” You see, he didn’t read it.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2011/Sep/11/okla__dhs_panel_pays_scant_attention_to_lawsuit.html

Well, Hendrick is so busy right now with all the lawsuits, the biggest being Children’s Rights suing DHS for incompetence. This has been dragging on for years now. Since 2008, DHS (meaning you and I) have paid $2.4 million in lawyer fees for outside counsel to defend DHS (to strangely enough, Mike Turpen’s Tulsa law firm). Yes, let me repeat. We’re paying OUTSIDE counsel an exorbitant amount of money to DEFEND DHS, because we think they do a bang-up job, right? The oversight commission never voted on this. Hendrick just went ahead and signed the contract. And to pay for it, Hendrick has “furloughed” the caseworkers. They work four days a week now, for less money with the expectation to do more in less time. Governor Fallin, please, please fire this guy. This isn’t amusing anymore. Children are dying.

Turpen?!! Are you kidding me? I liked Turpen 25 years ago when he ran for governor himself as a D. I giggled at his hyper, bombastic style. Now I’ve grown up and he’s become just a boring mouthpiece for the liberal cause. I can hear his defense now (wow, imagine the money he’s personally pocketing on this deal), “We don’t give them enough money to do the job! These dead children are all of our fault! Yours…mine! We all need to feel the weight of the guilt! Reach in your pocket now and make it right!” (But, you know, most of us don’t do drugs, don’t neglect our children, make good choices every day…but we need to pay more for those who do not? Okay, let’s remember this is not about the parents, it’s about the children.)

The trial is supposed to begin in 2011. Whoopee. Well, apparently, they have $2.4 million to spare, and my friends…the trial hasn’t even started yet. What will the final bill be?

Hey, Children’s Rights just wants DHS to change the way it does things. Just change. Do better. Hendrick says there is no choice but to defend.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100418_11_A1_TesaeD750643

Why? Seriously, why? How about we settle and launch change? This is also what the people want who are paying his legal bills (we the people, remember). Somewhere in the maze of bureaucracy, we lost our power and voice. Can we vote on this 2.4 million bucks? Can we vote to settle? No, we can vote in a governor who appoints oversight commissioners (when 9-year terms expire) who really don’t oversee squat. They’re lazy. Soooo, when I read that Keating “appointed” Hendrick, really commissioners who may have been appointed by previous governors “hired” Hendrick? And that Hendrick jackass does whatever he wants. My Stoopid American readers, the POWER lies in the bureaucracy, not within us. The government has taken us over. The faceless bureaucrat runs the show. They spend money like water and kill innocent children through ineptitude.

Change is hard, but Hendrick’s resistance is off the charts. We still have a societal problem not being solved. Can we give $2.4 million to a church to open a home for destitute children. We can let the D’s watchdog them…they seem to hate and mistrust church, they’d be great at keeping an eye on things. I’d rather trust the children with the church than the faceless, soulless government.

By the way, the House Speaker is calling for a performance review of Hendrick (he hasn’t had one in 9 years). Governor Fallin says she gets 10 calls a day complaining about Child Protective Services…

Meanwhile….children die.

Love Yourself, My Dear

I saw the best movie I’ve seen in years last night. No, it wasn’t “Jane Eyre” or “The Tree of Life.” It was “Madea’s Family Reunion.”

Flipping through channels, I got drawn in by a humorous courtroom scene of a judge ordering the loudmouth, heavyset, elderly, Black woman Madea to foster a little wise-cracking female juvenile delinquent or go to jail for some transgression.

I expected one of those insipid Black comedies in which the male star appears as various stereotypical characters in his family. But, what I got was poetry from Maya Angelou, a monologue from Cicely Tyson that made my eyes drain, an entire two hours packed with life wisdom, delivered in a Trojan horse-package of campy silliness. I forgot to say something about the smart music choices – jazz, gospel, Motown, the icing for pivotal scenes.

I see crap-movies all the time and can’t remember them a week later. I will not forget Cicely Tyson’s powerful performance.

It comes toward the end, during the family reunion, as the elderly women of the family walk across the ground, taking in the young men gambling and fighting, the young women half-naked drinking and gyrating with the men. The 96-year-old matriarch says “This is what we sacrificed for?”

They gather at a slave ancestor’s shack, and Ms. Tyson is spellbinding on the porch. I was in tears when she finished. She represented every Black person who came before the current young generation, the pool of that combined suffering and sacrifice. She roared “Young Black women, you are more than your thighs and your hips. You are beautiful, strong, powerful. I want more from you!” She has plenty to say to the young Black men, as well, demanding they take their place.

But the words for the women were the ones that pierced my heart. Ten years ago, I taught personal development at a “business” college. My students were strippers, hookers, junkies, drug dealers, and welfare moms court-ordered to get some job skills. My students came fresh from the failure of the public school system to my classroom, and it was standing room only. I quit after two years with burn-out.

They always wanted me to meet them in a dance club, to hang out with me. I relented once, and was appalled at the grinding and gyrating of these young women, prostrating themselves in public for the pleasure of men they don’t even know. They were drunk on the power of their sexuality, like a 14-year-old girl with newly sprouted breasts. This is the only value they had, the only power they had to wield, the only tool in the box.

Lord knows I tried to talk to them about self-esteem, self-pride, in a funny role-reversal in which the White woman teacher played Mammy to their Black Scarlett O’Haras. I clucked my tongue at them and scrunched up my face, “It just ain’t fittin’!”

I just wanted to help them be free. Free of the psychological shackles that tell them that they’ll never be able to do anything amazing except grind and gyrate. They had genuine affection for me and sensed my concern, but I lacked the dark skin of Cicely Tyson and her unique position of authority. “I want more from you!” she thundered.

Everything about this movie was so smart, using humor to break down the attitudinal barriers so the message has a better chance of successful delivery. One scene saw Madea beating hell out of a bully on the school bus. Another found her on the porch telling other old women how these “chid-ren” just need love and patience, then immediately snatching one flying by her and snarling in her face to hang up the phone attached to her ear.

The Big Message for the Black race is to treat themselves and each other better. And it is that simple. That’s an excellent message for the entire human race, period.

Criticism for the movie comes from all directions online – upper class Blacks offended by the corny stereotypes, lower class Blacks offended by the holier-than-thou preaching. I don’t care. I wish Tyler Perry would make a hundred more. I’ll go see them.

I applaud the scenes following one niece, with two children by two uninvolved men, who chooses to not have sex again until she’s married. Some criticize the scenes of her courtship with a new man as boring, “do-nothing” – are you kidding me? If someone isn’t getting it on, it’s boring?! Their first date was incredible – Poets and Painters night at a club. She recites an original poem at the mic while he paints a portrait of her.

We follow another niece being forced into a marriage with a well-to-do man who beats her. I rejoiced when she finally uses Madea’s tutorial on the technique of “hot grits followed up with a frying pan.”

Let the critics whine about spanking children versus beating spouses. There is wisdom in this, people. You have to stand up for yourself to make others treat you correctly. And Madea explains this to the niece, that only she can do this for herself, no one else can stand in as her.

One scene jarred me, however. The young women at the reunion tied their shirts up to show off their bodies, worn with very short, tight shorts. The old men were asking one girl to reach deep into the barrel to get them drinks while they gawked. These are family members! This was so gross. Then I realized it was yet another message Mr. Perry was sending to women – you will be treated based on how you dress and view yourself.

This movie is the most loving, love letter, written especially for Black women, but women of all races can feel the love and appreciate the sentiment.