Parental Custody of Obese Children in Jeopardy?

There's no denying that obesity and general conditions of being overweight are plaguing the United States and other countries who model the American lifestyle. Facts and research bear out that obesity leads to other chronic and sometimes life-threatening health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease--among others.

So then, does it logically follow that severely obese children should be taken from their parents, as Harvard pediatric professor and obesity expert David Ludwig, contends in the July 13, 2011 article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association contends?

Or is the American family already a casualty of a government that is overstepping its bounds into the personal lives of its citizenry?

There has to be other solutions to this problem other than yanking children from their homes--and placing them where? Would foster families be the answer? Already there are too few foster families available for children taken from homes where abuse or neglect is suspected. What training would foster families be required to undergo that their care would be superior to the care morbidly obese children could receive at home?

Surely the public health care system could--and should--be updated to address the needs of not only children with obesity, but also parents and adults with the same health issue. Supervision could be provided by local health departments, with the responsibility of care for the child remaining where it should be--at home.

Education and community resources need to be available to families of all income levels and physical abilities. If the government needs to step in at all, let it be to ensure that all school systems have physical education classes.

It's true that childhood obesity is an issue that needs to be addressed, but let's do so within the family system. The family unit has endured throughout time, whereas governments come and go. We must say "No!" to Big Brother making any more intrusions into the family.



Sources: Time; "Should Parents Lose Custody of Their Extremely Obese Kids?"; Bonnie Rochman; July 13, 2011
              Journal of the American Medical Association; "State Intervention in Life-Threatening Childhood Obesity"; Lindsey Murtagh, JD, MPH and David Ludwig, MD, PhD; July 13, 2011

Veracity in Politics

There is the truth and then there are versions of the truth. When our elected officials speak, do you sense they are being truthful? Are they saying what they think we, the people, want to hear?

In conversations with others about government in the United States, someone sooner or later will say, "But what do we really know?" I could put it down to cynicism if it was only the occasional person who voiced a distrust in politicians or heads of governmental agencies. But I think the skepticism has been a hard-learned lesson by the American public.

A line from one of Billy Joel's songs says, "Honesty is hardly ever heard and mostly what I need from you." The American people want that from their elected officials in all levels of government. It isn't a complicated request.

Politicians have been spinning stories for so long, it might be difficult for many of them to be truthful. Maybe each one is just waiting for the other guy to start being truthful before jumping on the train him/herself. Can a government felt to be dishonest such as ours is last long? How do we turn the tide?

The American People Need to Demand Accountability of Government Officials

Read the news on almost any given day and you're likely to encounter at least one item that demonstrates poor planning, poor decision making, or outright incompetence in some governmental agency. In recent news, we've learned that a great amount of the illegal marijuana crops grown in the United States are actually grown in our national parks. We've also learned that the Bureau of Land Management is contemplating euthanizing 30,000 wild horses in their care because the population of wild horses will break the Bureau's $1 billion annual budget.

Before we react to the information in these articles, we need to take a few moments to dissect how and why the situations have occurred in the first place. In this era of instant information, each of us can become so overloaded with info that there is little time for more than a knee-jerk reaction to what we read/hear. I believe this plays right into the plans of our elected officials and those in government jobs.

Instead of each of us--all of us--taking a step back and asking "How did this situation come to be in the first place?" we react to what we've read, hoping that a quick or easy solution will manifest itself and we can move on to something else.

Think about it: If you went to your boss and reported that a situation under your control had gone awry, would your boss simply shake his/her head and readily agree to increase your budget? I doubt it. There would be lots of explaining to do about how you let the situation become what it was, and depending on the severity of the situation, your job may be in jeopardy. That is common sense. But all of that goes out the window when it is governmental agencies who fail to plan and/or act in the best interest of the American citizens by doing their jobs competently.

How is it that we have a federal immigration department, and yet more than 12 million illegal immigrants live within our borders? How can we believe that a government that can't control our borders can then keep us safe from terrorists? The federal government has long waged its "war on drugs," yet on property within that same government's control there are crops of marijuana?

Until we as citizens demand accountability of our elected officials and those working government agencies, these type of things, and more, will continue, draining the taxpayer coffers for inefficient and sometimes blatant incompetency. This type of behavior would not be tolerated in our private sector jobs; it should not be tolerated in government.

How About Accountability?

Hmmm, let's see...as taxpayers, we are responsible to pay to the Internal Revenue Service what the tax code says is our fair share. If we don't, the IRS is sure to notice and will do whatever it takes to collect those monies from us. But that's fair, though, right? If my fellow taxpayers are anteing up their share, so should I.

And the governments to whom we pay our taxes--in this example, the federal government--are responsible to spend those monies in a wise and responsible manner. Right? Well, we all know the answer to that, after we've read some of the audacious amounts the government has paid for items and services over the past, such as the $100 toilet seats.

One of the latest spending blunders to come to we taxpayers is via the Department of Education, the head of which is Margaret Spellings. A 2007 audit revealed the Department of Education had overpaid a lending corporation, Nelnet, by $275 million, due to a loophole in the contract that allowed the company to charge a "higher than market" interest rate.

How did the Dept. of Ed, who is accountable to every tax-paying citizen, deal with this issue to serve the best interests of we taxpayers? Essentially, they said to Nelnet--don't do that any more, and oh yes, don't worry about the extra $275 million--you can keep it.

Additionally, overpayment to other lending institutions may total $330 million MORE.

How did Margaret Spellings respond to this potential $605 million waste of taxpayer dollars? She has forbid any further payments at the higher interest rates to the lending companies, but there will be NO INVESTIGATION into exactly how much was overpaid. Oh yes, six of the one hundred U.S. senators objected to her handling of the situation.

Where does the buck stop? When the government wastes our money so flagrantly--as if waving their hand and poo-pooing the importance of a measly $275 million--why aren't those responsible held to task? Why do they still have their jobs--and Ms. Spellings does--I checked--why can't they be prosecuted for malfeasance or whatever name you wish to attach to this sort of behavior?

Let's have some accountability in all areas of government. The law is that we must pay taxes. Isn't it the law--or shouldn't it be--that those who receive our hard-earned dollars get the most bang for our bucks?