#19
12/20/06 | “It is my job to say things that other people know but
cannot say.” |
|
#18
4/2/06 | “The transition of foster care from state to county
has not gone well. Instead of a state controlled horror
show, we now have a county controlled horror show with most
of the same staff and all the same problems.
When are we going to clean house?” |
|
#17
12/21/05 | “I don't think foster parents
should see themselves as passive and temporary but as
an active and permanent support system for the child. This role
should
have a special name, like 'avatar,' and it should combine
foster parenting with long-term advocacy.” |
|
#16
12/21/05 | “The song says, 'It's all happening at the zoo,' but I think
it's all happening at family court. You have
relationships, mostly dysfunctional. You have parenting,
also dysfunctional. You've got mental illness,
lots of it. You've got deep philosophical questions that
must always relate to some concrete course of action.
What more could a writer ask for?” |
|
#15
12/21/05 | “So much depends on personalities. You have good caseworkers
and bad ones. You have lawyers, public defenders and
probation officers who can connect with their
clients and those who don't. Some people are well-suited
to their jobs and others just don't get it.” |
|
#14
12/21/05 | “It is surprising how many people in Family Services,
including lawyers, have no intuitive comprehension of the law or
the principles behind it. Everything that happens here
is grounded in law, and understanding it gives me an
advantage.” |
|
#13
12/21/05 | “The system always has problems and the resources are never enough,
but I know one way you can improve the system at
no additional cost to the taxpayer. You remove an incompetent
worker and replace them with a better one.” |
|
#12
12/21/05 | “I do not want to become the guy who everyone runs to
when they have a grievance.
There are too many grievances and not enough time.
I can't be an advocate for individual cases,
but I can try to make the system more
transparent and effective.” |
|
#11
12/21/05 | “So this guy lost his daughter. Boo hoo. It happens
all the time in family court. I am trying to see the bigger
picture. These things have to happen. I just want them to
happen in as humane a way as possible.” |
|
#10
12/21/05 | “I don't feel homeless. I just sleep closer to
nature. Think of me as Henry David Thoreau
with a minivan and storage units.” |
|
#9
12/21/05 | On the Child Advocate Program: “Someone is giving them money and saying,
'Represent these kids,' but no one
is telling them how to do it. They're just throwing
lawyers at the problem. They think that anyone
with a law degree is skilled at understanding kids
and their needs.” |
|
#8
12/21/05 | “I never planned to become a family court activist.
I got dragged into it. I'm like Bugs Bunny. Two years ago,
I just wanted to be left alone, raise a family
and lead a normal life, but when someone sticks a gun down
my rabbit hole, I'm going to react.” |
|
#7
11/20/05 | “Drugs are
a red herring. The real problem isn't drugs but underlying
mental illness that leads people to drugs. If you cut off
all the meth, cocaine and booze in the world, then the
people who do these drugs will find something else. It's a
personality issue, not a drug issue, and personalities are
very hard to change.” |
|
#6
11/19/05 | “I want to move beyond 'Can you help the poor children?'
to 'Wow! This is where things are really cooking!'
I want Family Services to be the most lively, contentious,
groovy, happenin' place since Haight-Ashbury in the 60s.”
Las Vegas Sun, 12/18/05
|
|
|
#5 | “With so many neglected children already
here, it seems a crime to create more. If you adopt a kid,
then you are fulfilling a need. If you produce your own,
it's like digging a hole just to fill it up again. It may
keep you busy for 20 years, but in the end you haven't done
anything to help the world.” |
|
|
#4 | “Childbirth is a selfish undertaking. You
aren't doing it for the kid; you are doing it for yourself.
Do you think your genes are so superior that they need to be
preserved?” |
|
|
#3 | “I don't think you'll find anyone in Family
Services who is deliberately malicious. Everyone believes
they are doing good, but not everyone has the intellectual
and emotional capacity to know what good is.”
Las Vegas Sun, 12/18/05
|
|
|
#2 | “I'm not saying that the system is corrupt and
needs to be gutted. It's the only system we have, so we
have to make it work.” |
|
|
#1 | “The government is good at concrete things like
building roads and maintaining an army, but now we are
asking it to do something it isn't suited for: To step into
people's homes and repair families.”
Las Vegas Sun, 12/18/05
|
|
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