It Is All Fungible: Holiday Homes For Dogs And Kids

"If the Poor had more Justice they would need less Charity:"

Jeremy Bentham

I would like to tell you a little story about how Child Protective Services came to be.

I wrote this well over 10 years ago.

My friend has decided that it is time for me to start writing my story and it is really, really difficult to say no to him.

In a place called New York there was a little girl by the name of Mary Ellen Wilson, who was heard screaming, every single day. A concerned church worker, who has, also, been referred to as a social worker, Etta Wheeler, decided to do something about it. She contacted Henry Bergh, former president of Harvard University, who had returned from a trip abroad to establish the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, borrowed from England’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Basically, he was disgusted with how the immigrants used animals for labor; it was not proper for a “humane society”.

Based on the argument that a child was considered to be an animal because the child had yet to reach the age of reason, 13, filings were made to the court to remove the little girl and the imprisonment of her “mommy”. This beautiful child stood in the only tattered clothing she owned, testified in court to a full house how she sustained daily beatings, was slashed in the face with a pair of scissors by her “mommy”, and spoke of how she did not know what a tree looked like. She was removed from the custody of her “mommy”.

The world was touched. For the next few years, children were being delivered in masses to the Society until it branched and formed a division for children. After a few years of being bounced around from different girls homes which were deemed inappropriate for the little girl, and being housed by caring individuals, of course, the courts decided to return the little girl to her birth mother, Francis Wilson, who had finally remarried, not the foster “mommy” who tortured her.

It has been some time since I have seen such a blatant promotion of poor children being marketed in the spirit of stray animals.

There is no difference.  Trafficking of poor humans is all fungible for the holidays.

Street Beat: Homes For The Holidays

This week on Street Beat, host Karen Carter looks at adoption and foster care programs that help find homes for children and animals.

Cassandra Thomas
(Michigan Department of Health and Human Services)
Heidi Raubenolt (Judson Center in Redford)
(credit: JuWan Graham/CW50)

First, Cassandra Thomas, a foster home licensing supervisor from Wayne County Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Heidi Raubenolt, the child welfare director at Judson Center in Redford, explain the need for foster care parents.

Jim Berkemeier & Erica Foster –
 Gift of Adoption Michigan Chapter (credit: JuWan Graham/CW50)

Then, Jim Berkemeier, the President of Gift of Adoption Michigan chapter, and Erica Foster, one of the board of directors, explain how this charity helps prospective parents fund adoptions.

Wilma Abney and Jackie Michaelson –
Lighthouse of Oakland County (credit: JuWan Graham/CW50)

Then, Wilma Abney, Chief Program Officer for Lighthouse of Oakland County, discusses the PATH program that leads families in need from homelessness to home.  She’s joined by volunteer Jackie Michaelson who is working on the Adopt a Family program.

Kristina Milman Rinaldi – Detroit Dog Rescue
(credit: JuWan Graham/CW50)

Finally, Detroit Dog Rescue Executive Director Kristina Milman Rinaldi talks about saving homeless dogs and finding forever families for them.

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