Monday, 11 June 2018

I keep getting distracted... I need to work on that...  :-)

All day Sunday I was "moved" to write a post... but I never did... in the morning I thought of lots of stuff to write, but in the busy-ness of the day, I couldn't remember my inspirations...

Today... I am almost forgetting to post, getting sidetracked by social media, fatigue, and politics!

When I feel the evils of the world attacking my life, I remind myself that I am only one of GOD's people, and that my place in the workings of prophecy are small... GOD will achieve His goals, He will bring about His plans according to His timetable.  I just do what I can on my way.  Some days are harder than others, but I do my best.  There is so much sorrow and pain in other lives, more than mine, so I try to keep my perspectives in godly focus.

I have long said, often, that there are some things we can control and some things we can't.  We have to focus on what we are able to do.  It isn't easy, but it is what we have to do.

How was your day?  Your weekend?

I spent Saturday watching some movies, including a version of Jungle Book... so glad to see it after such a long intermission... it was animated, and funny, and I kept trying to guess the voices.  Some I didn't know.  When I watched the credits, I discovered one name and then found it at another movie for my next viewing choice... Daddy's Little Girls.  I still don't really know who he is (in movie standards), but I did like the movie I watched.

I have always been fascinated with the presentations of poverty and wealth in movies... I think Sabrina was one... the chauffer's (spelling?) daughter and the wealthy son.  I have always loved the original OVERBOARD movie, with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, even though some parts are not something I need to see.  This movie, Daddy's Little Girls, had me crying because of the poverty and court issues it brings up.  Of course, I have to wonder, again, if that is really how wealthy people act.

What else did I see... I can't recall right now.

I am not in a good mood for writing... so I better take the safe path and let this post end here... I can really get going if I am irritated, and tired.  This is the human condition.

So, until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

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I saw on Twitter that Trump is meeting with the leader of North Korea...  may we all pray that there is a good discussion between them and that the problems we all face together will begin to be solved.

May our country be protected.
May our rights be protected.
May our freedoms be protected.
May our lives be protected.
Amen.

Friday, 8 June 2018

I guess I didn't make it back to enter another (official) post yesterday...  I have had a bad week and just went to bed a lot... all day... trying to make my body feel better.

Today, when I turned the computer on, and saw the news briefs on the main page, and noticed that there was another suicide in the world of celebrity, it made me pause and try to find out why.  It seems he had been sending out signals for years... and wasn't able to find peace within his world.  I can't begin to understand the world of being a media magnet (victim), so I guess there isn't a lot for me to comment on about that part of his life.  I just think we all have to make a choice about what matters... where our priorities lie... what our dreams are that we want to find and discover if they will truly make us happy and fulfilled.

I think famous people get into a space where it is all they know, their value (self-worth) seems to be tied to the latest media report.  I have the impression that it is tied to their level of income... so, it becomes the primary force in their lives.

Christians have to make a choice about these issues when their dreams are about music or theatre or movies or other media-driven industries...  being the one at the top of the (manure) pile or being happy doing what they love, in a smaller community.

I was so saddened by a photo of Carrie Underwood this week.  Her dress was a statement for the music competition to have the most baring outfit to try to get the most attention... It meant she was leaving her faith for the wealth of her industry... and the lack of morals it represents.

It is similar to the "couch resume" that Harvey (?) Weinstein is now trying to defend for his bad behavior.  There were two people involved in those encounters that actually were consensual, but those that were forced, or coerced, would be considered rape I think.  This kind of situation has been around for a long, long time... probably with the first man that became wealthy or held the future of a woman in his power.  Women marry to avoid a lot of things, and sex is sometimes the payment they make.  I don't want to get into the child rape issues here, but they are related to this entire conversation about power and force and criminal actions.

Suicide... let's get back to a "better" topic... something that can be changed if we learn to love ourselves and make the necessary changes in our priorities.

I don't know what Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade were thinking about when they decided suicide was the only solution to their problems, but it isn't.  The deeper problem is that we talk ourselves into that "solution."  We fantasize a lot of different things as we ponder our individual problems... sometime we think everyone else will suffer by our decision, usually everyone's life goes on trying to solve their own problems... the ones who really loved us and needed us are the ones that suffer by our absence... I would guess that would be their daughters.

Maybe we need some kind of website just for people who think about ending their lives... I don't know how it would be set up... I'm sure they already have hot-line sites.  What would keep someone from going through with an emotional choice in the heat of their pain... I doubt I would turn on the computer and say, "Help me!"  It is really a difficult problem for all people in pain, and probably worse for those who are hounded by media cameras.



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So, this is Friday...  I have food... I have clean clothes... I have a Sabbath to conquer... I have long lists of things to do, some have been waiting for my recovery from yardwork this week... and I have letters to write and mail with the stamps I just bought.  I have meaning for my weekend.  :-)  haha  I don't even know if I will be able to do more than rest a lot.  This is becoming my senior citizen life.  Not what I had planned for my life!

We have a new HOBBY LOBBY (.com) in the area, so I have to get over there soon... and it is by the Chick-fil-a I have been trying to eat at since I discovered it existed (years ago...)… I have the funds to spend for a meal there now.  I have never been to a Hobby Lobby store.  I am wondering what kind of items they provide... well, I don't think I have been in one for the hours I want to spend exploring it.  I may have done a quick look at one in my old living area.  I was looking online this week to see their prices for things I want to check out.  I don't think I want to do shipping charges, so I will wait to get to the actual store.  I can buy several more items for the price of shipping... my goal!

I came across a saying once, and I know I have shared it before... but I am thinking of making a graphic to post occasionally with these words...

Something to DO
Something to LOVE
Something to HOPE FOR

These are the keys to happiness (according to this author... which is unknown to me).  I thought about it for a long time after I read it, and I decided it is a great solution for a lot of people... including inmates.  Something to Love could also be complete strangers in need that you involve yourself with... the suggestion to care about others I mentioned in my Kate Spade post.  Caring for others gives you something to do also.  And it might also increase your Hope level enough to keep you going.  These are not my original impressions of what it could translate to in a real life, but when we have nothing, we need to start somewhere, and grow it into a new life that brings us inner joy and satisfaction.

I translated it into internet sales for inmates... and minimum wages for the work they do... and education when they aren't working for wages... and learning the budgeting skills they need to succeed on the outside.

For myself... it's my retirement plan... crafting and selling online until I can't do anything anymore.

I guess I better go...

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

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May we all find better ways to solve our problems than suicide.
Amen.

Kids in Foster Care

Welllllllll….  I thought I would try to share the details of an email I was reading this morning... I was AMAZED to discover that my entire email account also transferred with the text I wanted to move over.  I deleted what I could see didn't need to be there, so I hope this isn't going to destroy my life...

I like that it shared the entire email and appropriate links.  I was discovering the graphics for comparing and remembering.

My problem is that the cry is for funding for the group, not funding for some solutions to the problem.  Thousands of kids have no one...  how can we change that?

One option I felt would be important for battling the increased abuse of foster kids, and the ease that it is done with, would be open community orphanages where siblings can be together, stability can be created, and mentoring can be included... community awareness at a bigger level. 

There are always problems with abusers... they find their victims... too easily. And are protected too easily, too.  I think more kids in the flow MIGHT help with this problem... but there is no way to know for sure.

Drugs are often related to these kids' lives... trained staff and better interventions might also be provided to overcome the effects they can't control.  All the social workers who love kids can become the staff...  healthy group activities can be created... more normal lives can be discovered by the kids, even without parents and a middle class dream.

My big issue is finding solutions, not just keeping the group going.  Non-profits who are established for one cause need to discover "new" causes to create more funding... for their paychecks and their existence.  It isn't just this group, it is every cause.

I suppose solutions don't matter as much when you don't want to find them and be out of a job.  When I was younger, the Welfare debate was the same thing...  millions of people are involved in government changes... so the government gets sneaky about how to achieve their goals.  Ordinary people suffer the consequences.

The poor are the easiest group to attack, and sometimes the money they require seems like a lot... maybe the way it is invested needs to be improved...  let me know if you want to hear (read) any more of my thoughts on how the government is set up!  :-)

Until next time,

In Christ,

Deborah Martin\

work2gathe.us

This is just a quick post about this issue...

my regular post will happen later... GOD willing!

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ParentalRights

info@parentalrights.org

(540) 751-1200

Troubling Trends in Foster Care

• Parental Rights Foundation <info@parentalrights.org>
• Jun 6 at 5:40 PM

Message body

 

Trouble Viewing? View an online version. The Parental Rights Foundation this week reviewed the five latest AFCARS reports and uncovered some disturbing trends. According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) summary of 2016 data released in October of last year and the four previous reports, the number of children in foster care nationwide has been trending upward since 2012, while the average age of children in foster care is trending down. We know of far too many cases where families are invaded and divided when they shouldn’t be, which raises serious alarms when the foster care population rises. And the younger a child is taken into foster care, the more severely they will feel its negative effects throughout their life. Further, parental rights are terminated at an alarming rate, with such judgments thrown around cavalierly as though they were not “the death sentence of family court.” For all these reasons, we found the following most visible trends deeply troubling. Trend #1: More Children in Foster Care Between 2008 and 2012, the number of children in foster care nationwide was in decline. This can likely be attributed to widespread, praiseworthy efforts promoting family preservation. In 2008, the number of children in foster care was 463,792, but by 2012 it had dropped, by a steady year-to-year decrease, to 396,966. But what began as a large 9.7% drop from 2008 to 2009 had dwindled to a 0.2% slip from 2011 to 2012. Not surprisingly, then, in 2013 the trend reversed and started upward again. The number has increased each year since, reaching a total in 2016 of 437,465. That’s 10.2% higher than the low point in 2012, and the highest since 2008 (the first year of our review). That’s more children separated from their homes, many of them unnecessarily. Trend #2: More Children Awaiting Adoption Perhaps not surprisingly, with more children going into foster care each year, we are also seeing more children awaiting adoption. In 2012, that number was 101,945. By 2016 it had risen—again, by a little each year—to 117,794. That’s a 15.5% increase in only 5 years, and mirrors a similar rise (11.3%) in the number of children whose parents’ rights to them have been terminated. There is naturally a direct causal relationship between the two numbers: when parents’ rights are terminated, their children are put up for adoption as a matter of course. But the more of these cases there are, the more likely that many of them should never have happened at all. Trend #3: Younger Children in Foster Care Equally unsettling, the average age of children in foster care is trending younger. In 2012 the median age of a child in foster care was 8.5 years, and the mean was 9.1. Five years later, the median had fallen to 7.8 and the mean to 8.5. So while more children are taken into foster care, they are also being taken at younger ages—on average about 8 months younger. There are many theories for why this could be, from “younger children are more adoptable” to the national opioid crisis, which is causing brand new moms to (understandably, if not always ideally) lose their drug-addicted newborns to the state. Most likely the trend is caused by more than one single issue. We would doubtless be wise to steer clear of the speculation as to the cause of this trend. What we do know, however, thanks to Joseph Doyle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Bureau of Economic Research, is the result: children removed from their families will down the road face higher rates of arrest, conviction, and imprisonment[1], delinquency, and teen birth, while attaining lower earnings as adults[2]. Good News: Fewer Aiming for "Long Term Foster Care" There is one bright spot in the AFCARS data: during a period where the total number of children in foster care has climbed by 10.2%, the number of cases with a case plan goal of “long term foster care” had dropped by almost half. In 2012, the number of children with a “Case Plan Goal” of “long term foster care” was 20,047. By 2016, the number was down to 10,549, a decrease of 47.4%. That is certainly very good news. Personally, though, I am still baffled. In the matter of children separated from their families, and in light of federal regulations aimed to give every child “a forever home,” what justification is there for making a child’s end goal “long term foster care?” This sounds like a plan to leave a child without permanent roots or connections, forced to venture off into adulthood completely alone. Of course, investigators know this, too. So the drop in this number could be a result of investigators designating some other case plan goal, but often with no other concrete plan in mind. It is good to see the number drop, but is that meaningful? And why is that number not zero? Something Must Be Done: Take Action It is conceivable that more children are legitimately in need of intervention than ever before. As the population increases, it is reasonable that the foster care population would rise along with it. But we are unconvinced. For starters, the child population during this span hasn’t risen—it has decreased, albeit ever so slightly. Additionally, in light of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2017 revelation that roughly 83% of all child abuse investigations each year are neither “indicated” nor “substantiated,”[3] one has to wonder just how many of these removals are really necessary in any population size. Given Doyle’s data on the effects of foster care (cited above), we must demand lower foster care numbers. And since the negative effects are increased the younger a child enters the system, that downward trend in age must be reversed, too. And there are too many termination of parental rights cases; children should never be permanently removed from fit parents , even if those parents are less than ideal. Yet we hear of more such cases every day. In short, these trends are deeply concerning. Something must be done. Of course some removals are necessary. It is a hated but inescapable truth that some parents abuse or neglect children. But as long as we rely on a system that hides behind a veil of secrecy, takes anonymous tips as evidence, and refuses to hold a parent’s rights in high regard, we will have to wonder: How many of these children would be better served if the state just left their families alone? You can help protect families by sharing this email and urging your friends and loved ones to join our mailing list at ParentalRightsFoundation.org. Together we can wake the nation to the abuses going on in secret courts all around us. The more who know, the sooner we can fix this problem and save our children. Sincerely, Michael Ramey Director of Communications & Research Please Share with Your Friends. [1] Doyle, Joseph J., Jr. “Child Protection and Adult Crime: Using Investigator Assignment to Estimate Causal Effects of Foster Care” Journal of Political Economy (August 2008). [2] Doyle, “Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring Effects of Foster Care” American Economic Review (March 2007). [3] Children’s Bureau, Child Maltreatment 2016 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, 2017), https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/cm2016.pdf, “Exhibit 3-B,” p. 18; retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/research-data-technology/statistics-research. Thank You for Your Continued Support! We rely on donations to continue to educate and inform the public and policymakers regarding parental rights. Every dollar helps!

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