On Being Used: Social Services and CPS Reform

I think social services, including CPS, needs to be restructured entirely. Social services for Americans has turned out, not to be services and programs which help people get ahead, but which penalize people, punish them, and then force them to work at the lowest levels of the grist mill to satisfy the demand for cheap labor. Social services has discriminated against the poor, and has fostered an attitude among Americans in general, that there is something wrong with those who are poor: that they are either drug addicts, mentally ill, or into some kind of bad or illegal behavior, including crime. Social services also undermines the intelligence of the poor, pushing them into vocational college programs which get the people nowhere and give them almost zero opportunities for really getting ahead of the system.

AGs, and lawyers which should be working in the public interest, are used BY the STATe, to penalize and push these people down.

Instead of being a forum for democrats, it's become the favorite playground of Republicans and special interests groups. From those left in the social services heap, they take babies and children for cheap adoption. They take cheap labor from those the state primes to stay in low level jobs and lower levels of education. They take, take, take, all the while claiming we are all giving too much to welfare families and those who need assistance.

They have robbed us blind. The vulnerable, the young, the disabled, the poor, the immigrants, the single mothers...all fodder for the elite.

The programs in place do people more harm than good. Not only that, the workers for the state have a joint interest in preserving their own jobs and interests.

If the state doesn't like the money being expended on a welfare family, they can use CPS to have the children taken away, and they will use the AG lawyers, employed by the state, to do it. Taking the chilren away from poor families takes much of the welfare funding away and puts money back into the pockets of the state, despite the fact they know they are destroying homes and violating civil rights.

The poor, they say with their actions, do not have the right to be happy or have children. The poor, they say, should use birth control or we will create our own form of birth control by giving their children away to others who are not "taking money from the state" to get on their feet. The poor, they say with their actions and programs, are not bright enough to go to good colleges for a 4 year degree but should be pushed into 2 year vocational programs which Republicans will support because of the need for cheap labor in occupations no one wants to work in. It is the "fastest" way to get families off of state aid, nevermind the best way to keep families down and at poverty levels besides, never able to really get ahead.

People like Michelle Erickson get job promotions and raises, for being puppets and being the fall guy or mouthpiece for the AG and those in higher positions of CPS.

We all know how some seek revenge and protect self-interests, and there is no better way to do it than by going after the poor, or allowing others to tear families down until they're poor enough to attack without the state having to worry about accountability.

These social workers and CPS workers are only secure in THEIR jobs, as long as there are people coming into and through the system to give them work to do. They say they want to help people become self-sufficient, but if that really happened, they would be out of jobs. Instead of really giving people a chance, they develop programs which keep people trapped in a cycle, thereby ensuring the next generation of have-me-nots.

Social workers refer cases to CPS, thereby "creating" jobs for their fellow CPS friends. This gives the AG attorneys something to do as well. And by creating and fostering the impression there is something "wrong" with those who are poor, they gain the acceptance of the public, and retain their upper hand over those they keep down.

One example of discrimination and this system at work, is how many children are pulled from poor families to meet the needs of CPS to survive. CPS is not an organization which protects children and creates "strong families". It is an organization which only takes children from poor families, and gives them over to the rich, or to those who are not on state aid. It gives children over to their friends, who cannot have children of their own, and it gives them work to do, which provides them with job security. CPS has proven, by its track record, not to be an "equal opportunity" organization, with an interest in families and civil rights, but it solely TAKES kids out of POOR families which they know have no way of fighting back.

The public defense attorneys appointed, are also state workers. It is the state, against the poor family. And being poor, CPS says through their actions, is a crime, and poor families should not be able to raise children.

Children are being abused left and right in middle-class and upper-class America, and no one hears them or reports them, or takes them out of harmful homes. These kids are truly abused and are left to their own devices, to become runaways, get involved in crime, become cutters and drug addicts, and end up in marriages which are just as abusive as the homes they were leaving behind.

If CPS was an organization that really cared about kids, it would be doing work to protect children across the social strata. Instead, CPS is a baby market and a way to force families off of state assistance.

The Attorney General's office, one I used to respect, thinking it's role was to protect the consumer, is an office which uses employees to protect the interests of the state, not the public.

It's not Democrats and the poor who are so very interested in social services and welfare--it's the rich, the business owners, the government, and Republicans.

I wondered, when I read Pam Roach's blog, why is a Republican representative or Senator, regularly monitoring her blog about the problems with CPS and social services? Why are they threatened?

Perhaps it is because they know how this system, as is, works for THEM. They have friends who adopted kids out of a nice welfare package. They know how the programs currently provide cheap labor for them and set people up to fail. They know how putting real money into programs that work would actually elevate families when they have an interest, a financial one, in keeping these families down.

Same thing with the justice system. Police have no problem going after the poor criminals. The government has no problem going after poor criminals. They're easy to catch, easy to frame, and with public defense, they are easily railroaded. Filling up the jails with low level and poor criminals keeps the prisons in operation, and state workers of these prisons, which is a source of income to many, mainly Republicans and big business. Using the poor creates jobs for the rest of America. Construction companies get contracts from the government to build new prisons, the state gets money to employ more guards and employees to run the prisons, Judges and public defenders get a shitload of cases they can turn over faster than a hot car, and no one will ever care that much, because no one cares that much about the poor. What will the poor ever do for me? They look at one man and say, with their actions, "You are worthless to me, and will never do me any good and I also know you're so poor and insignificant, you will never be able to harm me either--no one cares about you. And you are just a number, one of hundreds of thousands."

It starts with social services and CPS. They get ahold of the poor first, before they are in jail. While the kids are young, they show them how their parents will never amount to anything, and instead of allowing the public to see the truth--how they and their programs set people up to go nowhere and to end up in jail, they claim poverty ITSELF is a "risk factor" and justify taking children from good homes, not because there is evidence of neglect or abuse, but only because, they claim, those children are "at risk". Of what? Of being poor.

Meanwhile, the only thing that's really "at risk" is their jobs. Social services and their workers need the poor, and CPS proves the poor are the only ones they fill their caseloads with. But they use the poor to both provide them with work to do, and then take their financial assistance away at the same time.

And if one poor bastard speaks up or speaks out, then they are "mentally ill" or not "fit" to parent. Because, the idea is that the poor don't come equipped with brains enough to be productive members of society, and the better-off will be threatened with exposure, so the quickest way to punish is to call someone "mentally ill".

The solution to CPS and Social Services as they stand, is to get rid of the monopoly they have for starters. All of these state employees are working together and rely on a paycheck from the same employer: the state.

I have some ideas for getting rid of the monopoly and reforming social services and getting rid of CPS altogether (I think it's such a disgrace that anything taking it's place should not even be burdened by having to assume the same name). But first I'm going for a walk, and barring someone doesn't try to run me over, I will be back with my ideas.