Herding cats! That’s what the Nebraska Big Kid Dump has turned in to.
Just a few minutes ago, Nebraska HHS announced that a 15-year old girl was dumped off at Creighton University MC. There are no details yet, and news reports don’t say any more than the state-issued press release here.
I intended to blog today about the Georgia case. There’s some pretty amazing reporting on it in the Atlanta media. Hopefully, that will go up later today.
And honestly, I’d like to write about other things, but this it’s important to get this stuff out. Everything we said would happen has come home to roost.
It is almost funny except you have to feel so bad for the children who are being dumped.
The media is having a heyday with it, and the whole thing makes Nebraska look like a joke. Nebraska just moved from being the typically midwestern Cornhusker State to being the Kidbuster State.
Sandy
Yes, Nebraska SH law IS a joke, though it’s a pretty sick one.
If just one person can be legally abandoned, it’s possible for the same fate to befall anyone. All it takes is a change of circumstance.
What we have here isn’t a failure of communication. It’s the triumph of obtuseness and sentimentality over genuine concern and empathy.
Abandonment of another human being, whatever the age or condition, should never be legally permitted.
Surely, where it happens, compassion can be applied according to the circumstances.
Or is that too difficult for people to understand?
And the idea that the *anonymous* abandonment of infants solves anything at all is totally Lala Land wishful thinking.
It just adds new problems to old.
Kippa
With the Nebraska legislature apparently ready to put some age limits on the law, we may actually see a rush by parents of older children to dump their kids before the law can be changed.
If only the legislature would also amend the statute to require ID from those leaving children at SHs, and grant the offspring access to that information at majority. Alas, the proponents of the laws seem incapable of believing that anonymity is not a prerequsite for the safe abandonment of an infant. Certainly, those dumping their older, self-aware children have no concerns about anonymity.
J.
Well, I’ve been thinking about a reality show,–sort of a Beat the Clock/Great Race type of show where parents and guardisnd around the country (hey, why not the world?) rush to Nebraska to dump before the law is amended. There will be all sorts of obstacles put in the way, of course, and nobody will have any idea when the law will change. The winner will never have to see their Big Kid ever again and will win $1 million.
From Kevan:
Well, the former card-carrying socialist in me says this. So-called “Safe Haven” laws are another rightwing attempt to whitewash (pun intended) over the real issue: poverty.
In a genuine “greatest nation on earth”, abandoning a baby would be an extremely rare act of a person who is seriously mentally ill. But in a “sink or swim” system like this, some people think they have no choice. Saying, “Hey, it’s ok. Bring us the tyke and it’ll be fine.” is not a solution. It totally smokescreens the entire problem. But if the Right addresses the problem, they’re forced to admit they’re wrong and the system is manifestly unjust and certainly is not the “greatest” nation on earth. Sweden, in fact, might be the greatest nation on earth; who knows? We’d need to see standards of living and how they take care of the most vulnerable of their citizens. Just telling a 15 year old to dump the baby at the fire station is not a solution, it’s a damned cop out.
Never mind American capitalism sexualizes girls now starting at age 10. Then society acts surprised when they get pregnant at 14 and society just wants it to go away. To the fire station. They don’t want to see a 14 year old raise the child with public help. Palin’s daughter can, but can some girl in the inner city? No, the Right vilifies them. And society no longer instils in the boys trying to be men that this walking away is a bunch of bullshit. Again, society tacitly approves of the male walking away. Because, hey, the fire station is right over there.
Society needs to say, no, this is a bullshit answer. Let’s address the real problem of why babies get dumped, not create recycle bins for them. It means we have to admit to ourselves we are decidedly NOT the “greatest nation on earth” when we have girls dumping their own children into trash cans OR fire stations. It means we have to start changing or, damn it, we sure as hell shouldn’t be telling other countries how to run their governments.
Just heard that the Governor called a Special Session Nov. 14th to address this issue. They said that 23 children have been abandoned and most of them are teens. What a tragedy! As ever, it is lack of resources that allows this to happen. Wonder what these families would have done if their medications and help had been affordable.
It is always disconcerting when we come face to face with the fact that in the US, every life still has a pricetag attached.
We might as well have been born with barcodes on our foreheads.
We were.
It’s commonly called DNA.
Kippa
There is no reason to “bitch” any longer and now is the time to take that energy and do something positive with it. I suggest asking people what THEY plan on doing for the children that need the HELP. I myself have already started just that, trying to raise funds for an agency located in Omaha that specializes in finding “forever families” for abandoned, “special” children who have been placed in foster care. AS a society, the children are EVERYONE’s concern, even when they are the worst kids you can imagine. The website for that agency is http://www.alww.org and I am selling the protest signs on ebay as I’m sure you are aware, with 95% going to that agency. I would be grateful to you if you brought attention to that auction as the money is going to a good cause.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=200267712593
People are going to continue to abandon children and the only thing we can do is help find them a home where they will have a “forever family.”
Letmehavebilly, take your specious “forever family” and stuff it! What are you doing to help the REAL families that have become so desperate? If you put the energy into family health and preservation that is put into making families interchangable Lego pieces, then I’d have some respect. And it’s my issue and I’ll bitch if I want to.