Your comment is very interesting, and gives me pause… Yes, I think most of the public is looking for more government intervention. Obama is practically preaching it, when he bothers to talk about his approach to the federal government: let’s spread out the income of those who make more. Let’s let the government take over aspects of our security like health care and spread the costs over everyone.
In my humble opinion the government should not be engaging in these sorts of things. The tax laws do not take into account the area in which the citizen lives, and they spend more money on overhead than any decent private sector industry. They can’t run Social Security, and only moderately take care of MediCare. This nation is too huge to allow the government to try a national health care program. It will be a fiasco.
This will be a great topic for us to continue, but I will answer your other question for now. No, I do not think that CPS should be disbanded. I think it should do what it should, but have no authoritive power in enacting intervention. Calls of concern should be channeled to the police of a particular area, and they should go through the motions of procuring a search warrant like they would on anything else. Should sufficient evidence be obtained, children in harm’s way should be relegated to CPS to care for them. That is all. They should not have the power to manage the intrusion and make choices as to what should be done. That organization has demonstrated recently that they can not do so. Like the ACLU they have a great tag line for what they can and should do, but the general mind set of those who make the decisions can not see past their own predispositions, and that is not right. We are innocent until proven guilty, and a disbelief in another’s personal philosophy should not predicate that. We have had discussions regarding misandry versus misognyny previously, but when it comes to fathers and children, misandry is far more prominent in our present society. The comments I hear about my own parenting, while supportive make me wonder what others would expect. After my ex-wife left, someone asked about her, and I told her that she was gone. Her response? Do you still see your daughter? I know our experiences are different simply because of our genders. I recognize that I don’t always see things from a woman’s point of view because frankly I don’t hear it. I try really hard, though. I promise. However, listen to the commercials regarding Father’s Day sales. They make us sound like dumbasses. I don’t recall similar ads around Mother’s Day. Alright, I am going off on a tangent, so I’ll stop for now…
-Proud and Dedicated Father
Wow, there’s a lot to respond to, here.
First of all, I avoid advertising altogether, as much as I can! (We don’t have cable, and I listen to books on tape or NPR during my commute!) That said, you’re right that male-bashing is common and hurtful. I worry about what it will mean to my boys as they grow up. Then again, isn’t most of the advertising around Mother’s Day all about flowers and perfume and jewelry and lacy frou-frou doilies and tea sets and taking your mother out for brunch? Lord, save me from another teapot. Get me a jigsaw.
I do think we can agree on one thing: The Media is the enemy. (It didn’t used to be. Where are the Woodwards and Bernsteins? What happened to truth in the media? But I digress.) Of course you’re a proud and dedicated father, and there are more of you out there than the media lets on, I strongly suspect.
Now, about universal health care… hm. God, I don’t know where to start. Maybe I’ll save this one for later. (And do you REALLY think that McCain will… oh well, let’s not open this can of worms yet, either.)
Actually, I rather like what you say about how the CPS should be run. There is definite room for improvement.
Oh yeah. I heard about that. What a horrible situation for everyone involved!
I don’t know if this is a government-related thing, though. I don’t think that anyone is saying that there needs to be more government. In certain circumstances, there do need to be more regulations, though. “Regulations” mean guidelines that should be followed. More reasonable guidelines in place might have prevented this situation.
You’re not arguing that CPS be disbanded, are you?