Recently by Becky Akers: Terrorizing, Smuggling, and Assault: All in a Week’s Work at the TSA
"In loco parentis" is a slogan the State takes seriously. Very seriously. Throughout history and around the world, governments have savaged citizens as lethally as the most abusive father when they aren't smothering us worse than any helicopter-mom.
Leviathan also interprets the phrase literally when preying on its youngest serfs. Indeed, the beast and its apologists assume that bureaucrats and politicians are far wiser, more loving, and more qualified to raise children than the poor slobs who birthed them.
That satanic fallacy drove the Orwellian "Department of Children and Family Services" in Cleveland, Ohio, to abduct a boy from his family last Thanksgiving. Its excuse? Timmy ate too well.
"At more than 200 pounds, the third-grader [who, with his mother, remains anonymous: I've dubbed him Timmy for convenience] is considered severely obese and at risk for developing such diseases as diabetes and hypertension." Busybodies kidnapped him because "case workers" – whose judgment is never inaccurate or less than astute since they "work" for Leviathan – "considered this mother’s inability to get her son’s weight down a form of medical neglect, said Mary Louise Madigan, a spokeswoman [sic for u2018propagandist'] for the Department… They said that the child’s weight gain was caused by his environment and that the mother wasn’t following doctor’s orders – which she disputes. u2018This child’s problem was so severe that we had to take custody,'" Madigan said." Really? You "had to," huh? And just who was holding the gun to your head there, Mary Louise?
But Mar wasn't done justifying this atrocity. She piously continued that "the agency worked with the mother for more than a year before asking Juvenile Court for custody of the child…" No doubt the millions of citizens caught in bureaucratic cross-hairs nationwide would testify there's mighty little "working with" in these situations. Rather, they overflow with threats, bullying, and whims masquerading as Commandments That Mere Slaves Must Obey.
The State preys most mercilessly on victims it has so impoverished that they accept its handouts. Ergo, we might expect Ms. Anonymous to be unemployed and reside in public housing while subsisting on food stamps. Au contraire. Sheu2018s "a substitute elementary school teacher who is also taking vocational school classes," while her city's "median income for a household" is $46,731. Nor is her son failing in Our Rulers' juvenile prison: he is "on the honor roll and participated in school activities."
Try to fathom Timmy's excruciating anguish at his exile. Such senseless separation from family and all that's familiar would destroy any eight-year-old child; add to that the horrific insecurity Timmy probably suffers because of his weight. Imagine the crushing guilt that must plague him now as well: "They're punishing me, and it made Mom cry when they took me away, because I'm so fat and worthless."
Or picture his mother's grief, her desperation and eagerness to say or do anything so long as her baby's assailants restore him to her: “They are trying to make it seem like I am unfit, like I don’t love my child … Of course I love him. Of course I want him to lose weight. It’s a lifestyle change, and they are trying to make it seem like I am not embracing that. It is very hard, but I am trying.”
But hey, it's all worth it so long as the State saves Timmy from himself, right? After all, he might develop diabetes. So cue government to ride to the rescue – as it does with diabetic kids at checkpoints in airports.
"Jacob Wisnik is a 10-year-old who … wears a pump that delivers insulin as he needs it[, …which] sets off the scanner … and has to be patted down by security agents…"
A few weeks ago, Jacob and his family tried to fly out of Chicago's "O’Hare airport. He was u2018put through borderline humiliation,' says his mother, Eva…" There was nothing "borderline" about it, but anyway, Ms. Wisnik reported Jacob's trauma – to a columnist, who publicized the story – "from the car coming back from the airport, still shaken by having to stand by while her 5th grader was marched through the terminal by armed guards, put in a private examination room, then poked and prodded."
Ms. Wisnik included Jacob's heart-wrenching account as well: "…we got to the security desk. In an instant, I felt dread enter my body." Boy, Jacob, don't we all. "…It’s hard enough managing my diabetes each day; the way I am treated by TSA makes me feel not only upset about my disability, but worse of all they make me feel uncomfortable with myself. … they have to pat me down or make me touch my pump and then they swab my hand to make sure I am not carrying explosives. For those few seconds they won’t let anyone touch me including my mother. I feel alone and worse I feel as though I have done something wrong."
Jacob, this is precisely why the Anti-Federalists included the Fourth Amendment in the Constitution: the State should never empower its goons to torment anyone this way, and certainly not a young man in your circumstances.
"…today was a nightmare! … they saw that my pump was clipped over my groin area so they would have to take me to a special screening room. … My mom had to come with me to be screened, and my 12-year-old sister said ‘what do I do?’ because all of our stuff was on the conveyer belt. She looked scared. I felt more humiliated than scared. When a thousand eyes are watching you because they think you may be a deadly threat it is so uncomfortable and humiliating. I marched to the screening room barefoot. I suppose they were trying to follow regulations, but I was on the verge crying."
And yet government insists that it provides for children and disabled folks, whatever their age, far better than families specifically or the private sector in general can.
Meanwhile, the Department of Children and Family Services' website urges that we "call [it] … to report suspected child abuse or neglect." Wanna bet no one burned up the line on Jacob's behalf?
May 5, 2012
Becky Akers [send her mail] writes primarily about the American Revolution. Her novel set during the war will be published this summer.
