wingnut stupidity
On facebook, a conservative “friend” just posted that “Dirty secret No. 1 in Obamacare is about the government’s coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development.”
Really? I responded, and asked if she could show me where in the bill I could find this. She told me to look at Section 1904 and 440. So i took a look. here is section 1904:
SEC. 1904. GRANTS TO STATES FOR QUALITY HOME VISITATION PROGRAMS FOR FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN AND FAMILIES EXPECTING CHILDREN.
it’s about providing grants, that is money, to states to provide home visitation programs that employ social workers, nurse practitioners and other professionals to make support new families. And here’s section 440:
‘SEC. 440. HOME VISITATION PROGRAMS FOR FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN AND FAMILIES EXPECTING CHILDREN.
‘(a) Purpose- The purpose of this section is to improve the well-being, health, and development of children by enabling the establishment and expansion of high quality programs providing voluntary home visitation for families with young children and families expecting children.
The boldface emphasis is mine: what this means is parents have to volunteer for these visits. It’s not mandatory. therefore, not “usurping parental rights over child care and development.” but there’s more check out subsection 3 of Section 440:
(3) ASSURANCES- Assurances from the State that–CommentsClose CommentsPermalink
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‘(A) in supporting home visitation programs using funds provided under this section, the State shall identify and prioritize serving communities that are in high need of such services, especially communities with a high proportion of low-income families or a high incidence of child maltreatment
This is to prevent CHILD ABUSE. This is to, as the section puts it, fill in “the gaps in home visitation in the State, including identification of communities that are in high need of the services”.
Gaps like those that led to the death of Danieal Kelly. She was poor, black, a child, and had severe cerebral palsy (in other words, not the kind of person conservative wingfucks give a shit about), and the Philadelphia DHS let her down.
Danieal Kelly, the third of Andrea Kelly’s nine children by five fathers, was 14-years-old when her curled, 42-pound body, starved body was found on August 4, 2006. Police and paramedics were called to Danieal’s West
Philadelphia home and when they opened her bedroom door, the stench of decay hit them. Danieal, who had been dead for several hours, was on a dirty mattress surrounded by feces. Maggot-infested bedsores covered her back. She had been on the mattress for such a long time, the shape of her body was imprinted into the mattress. A grand jury report was released this week, indicting nine people and describing Danieal’s life of pain, neglect, abuse and eventual death.Danieal was supposed to be under the supervision of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services (”DHS”), but a grand jury investigation has uncovered gross negligence in this girl’s care. A 258-page grand jury report documented that neither DHS nor the now defunct, non-profit agency MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., which was out-sourced to follow Danieal’s case, had even seen the girl or properly reported on her care during their tenure. Neighbors contacted DHS numerous times reporting that Danieal was in danger, but those complaints were ignored. Anthony Miller, the father of some of Andrea Kelly’s children, called the DHS hotline on April 20, 2005. The grand jury states: “Mr. Miller said he was moved to make the report to DHS because ‘I seen Danieal Kelly upstairs in a hot room laying in pee, no curtains, no blinds, no fans, just laying in pee.’” Mr. Miller said no one from DHS ever contacted him.
Maybe if there had been some extra funding for quality home visitation programs, this wouldn’t have happened.
the only kind of person who would claim this section of the bill is about “usurping parental rights” is either a liar, an idiot, or a combination of the two.
What that person is NOT is rational.
