COSELLOUT: Still Tellin’ It Like It Is

What do we want? MORAL CONSISTENCY!!! When do we want it? NOW!!!  …On Wednesday we asked what Vick’s sentence means for the animal mass torturers known as Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yesterday, we asked what Vick’s sentence means for a PREVENTABLE genocide in Darfur. And today we ask what it means for our own country’s most vulnerable children. This post has been stolen from Temple3. (Sue me!)  The phrase "what kind of message are we sending to our youth" has become the most standard cliche in the sportswriting book. Now here is an example where it REALLY applies: "Children and families in Texas could be doing better than they are today. While there are no quick-permanent fixes for curing all that ails American families, more physical space to support the healthy development of children cannot hurt. In some Texas counties, there seems to be more room for animals than the unwanted spawn of that states undesirables and unlucky. Texans are not alone in this. No one ever said a child, especially someone else’s teenage child, was man’s best friend. In some Texas counties, there seems to be more room for animals than the unwanted spawn of that states undesirables and unlucky. Texans are not alone in this. No one ever said a child, especially someone else’s teenage child, was man’s best friend."

clipped from www.kcentv.com More than 600 abused and neglected children live in McLennan and Hill counties alone, but the nearest emergency shelter is in Bell County, and it’s usually full. That’s why child advocates in Waco are pushing to get a shelter there. Child advocates wonder why there are three animal shelters in McLennan County, but no children’s shelter. “We’ve got children who are physically abused, children who’ve been burned, children with broken bones, children who’ve been sexually abused,” Director of CASA Susan Burt said. Susan has worked for Court Appointed Special Advocates or CASA for seven years. In that time the number of children in foster care in McLennan and Hill Counties has almost tripled. “When I first started in this business about seven years ago there were 250,” Burt said.

Thanks Temple. The matter also personally hits home as much of my professional employment has been working on behalf of the career development and self-sufficiency of young people trapped in the foster-care system. The word "orphanages" has only been replaced with the prettier name "group homes". This includes the state of Texas where, like most states, young people aging out of foster-care are "emancipated" at 18 years old… often graduating directly into the homeless population. (A minority of states with a conscience extend this age to 21)… Pop Quiz: What is the average age where an American citizen reaches complete self-sufficiency?… drum roll please… age 27. Yes, that includes all you freeloading, free-lunch having college students who needed to crash back at your parent’s house for another couple of years before you got your own first real job, your own first real home, and your own first real dog.