Strickland Appoints Head of Family Dis-services
December 22, 2006 by Conservative Culture
Filed under Ohio
What does a Strickland term of government mean for families? Remember that this is the minister many looked to to restore honest and decency to government.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Governor-elect Ted Strickland has expanded is cabinet Thursday, naming two more agency directors.Helen Jones-Kelley has been selected as director of the Ohio department of Jobs and Family Services. Columbus city councilwoman Mary Jo Hudson will be the director of insurance.
Not much on the surface. It didn’t take long to find something about her. I can only imagine what would be found if one took more time to look. Here are a few wonderful facts about her beliefs.
For example, 11-year-old Sarah, an African American child, was placed in the home of a loving white foster family. They noted that she always sat alone by the side of the pool when her foster mom took the kids out for a day at the water park. Sarah was perceived as shy and aloof by friends of the foster family who happened to be present. The real issue was that Sarah’s hair is naturally coarse, and she remembered the one and only time she got it wet without the benefit of a moisturizing cream, pressing comb and other implements necessary to manage her ethnic hairstyle. The tangles had to be cut out of it, because it was impossible to comb through. She also remembered how hurt she felt when her white playmates made fun of the way her hair kinked up as opposed to hanging straight as theirs did after swimming.
Does this mean diversity is good in that race shouldn’t be a consideration to deny or approve. How will activists feel about this. Or is this just more proof from her about the ‘insensitivity of whites’. Read more.
Another child, 17-year-old Joey, has been questioning his sexual identity. He is attracted to a male friend. He has not acted upon his feelings, but is afraid to discuss any of this with anyone he knows, especially his caseworker, who prides himself on being a “man’s man” and will only talk sports and cars with Joey on his visits. Joey fears being ridiculed or worse yet, ostracized for not being a “typical guy.”
Yes. What families really need is the new conservative values of encouraging and discussing with your children how to accept their gayness.
Twelve-year-old Shayna is in foster care because she had an eating disorder and was diagnosed as “failure to thrive.” After she was brought into care, she bonded with her foster family and quickly gained weight and self-esteem. After a few months, her mother argues that she opposed Shayna going to church with her foster family and insisted that she attend another religious institution with Shayna’s maternal grandparents. Shayne protested, because she enjoyed attending with her foster family. The foster family protested, because much of their weekly activities centered around their church, and they warned the caseworker that if Shayna could not attend with them, she would have to be removed from their home despite how well she was doing in placement. Shayna’s mother argued that her residual parental rights were being violated. Shayna’s Guardian ad Litem was asked to make a recommendation, which he did. He feared that sending Shayna to church with her grandparents might allow the possibility of unsafe and unsupervised visits with Mom. His recommendation was against removing Shayna from the foster home, but rather to find a compromise with Mom which allowed Shayne to attend at least one service a week in a church of Mom’s professed religion, near her foster home, though not necessarily the one Shayna’s grandparents attended.
Yes…. loving compromise with a mother who could do no better than nearly kill her daughter and a compromise. I just can’t wait to see what other compromises will occur as she guides our families to greater understanding and compromise. Sounds fun. I bet you can hardly wait either.
Jill
on Sat, 23rd Dec 2006 10:28 pm
Unless you know something about child custody law or social work, I’d urge you to not post stuff like this - it truly makes you look like you do not know what in the world you are talking about. Jones-Kelly’s article is spot-on, no matter what side of the aisle you come from when you’re taking kids in who through no fault of their own aren’t with their parents anymore. Educate yourself about the type of work this woman and thousands of others in this state do for children before you start trying to hype up something that has no basis in reality, except for trying to give this kids a life. And yes - I have a few credentials that make me someone who knows. Just email me and I’ll give you the rundown.
Jill
on Sat, 23rd Dec 2006 10:33 pm
Don’t you think that ad on your righthand sidebar for IMVU is rather slutty? What’s conservative about that? Should we draw conclusions about you based on the type of female images you allow on here to get money? Seriously - people in glass houses…
Conservative Culture
on Sun, 24th Dec 2006 1:23 pm
All for people taking in children to help and care for those for whatever circumstances caused them to be in this situation. Also for open frank discussions with children who may be confused and allowing them to talk.
However, no one needs a social degree to know the liberal agenda that this appointment will mean. I don’t confuse liberal agenda cloaked in compassion as being real. There is an agenda. She is a liberal and certainly wouldn’t have been appointed if she wasn’t.
By the way… I am well aware of such children and have plenty of experience with such parents and their children. It is the lack of absolutes in life that have helped undermine healthy family relations and the ’systems’ ability to provide real help.
Jill
on Thu, 28th Dec 2006 8:11 am
Ah! I found it.
The contact page. Sorry for all the confusion about comments and I appreciate Tom forwarding my info to you. My brain does not function so well after a certain time of the day, I’m a morning type, and so I didn’t think to go to the front page of the blog as opposed to one post’s page until this morning, after some coffee.
I just wanted to hear more about what you/conservatives think the role of an agency like jobs and family services is. I would guess Libertarians would say to abolish it. Do conservatives feel the same way, and if not, how would it differ from what it does now? That was all.
Thanks and have a good new year.
Conservative Culture
on Thu, 28th Dec 2006 8:35 am
Typically conservatives are for limited government. It is tragic that the society has become so broken that we have to have such a large agency. Seems to be the society we have created and we don’t really fix the problems but take care of the crisis. But the scope of the discussion is larger than the department issue.
What seems to be at issue is the title… family dis-services. That is not meant as a reflection of the department but rather the liberal philosophy that the appointment brings. This is illustrated by:
1. The need of government to make sure children have someone to talk to about their sexuality… knowing that the government’s stance is that gayness ought to be encouraged. This is not the role government should play.
2. The other is that a child who with the natural parents can barely live, was removed and then let the very people who were a danger to the child be allowed access to the child they nearly killed. The parent in that example needed to demonstrate changed behavior if she wants to see the child.
Jill
on Thu, 28th Dec 2006 8:50 am
Hmm. Okay - so you’re taking issue with what precisely is provided through the agency and suggesting that what is provided through the agency, at least the services you’re noting here, are dis-services.
I’m also interested in long drawn out debates on this topic because it happens to be an area I feel most comfortable in saying I have expertise because of my education and years working at a private nonprofit children and family agency. BUT…I know not everyone who reads here, you included, might want that.
So - let me just say, your #1 and #2 are kind of full of hyperbole, IMHO. It really isn’t like that, it can’t be like that, truly, because the day to day operations and concerns of what happens in a child care agency - public or private - is so much more critical than what you’re talking about. One analogy might be that lefties might be accused of being all hysterical about a White House level faith-based initiative operation doling out public money to religious institutions. But proponents of that office would say, look, it’s not about the religion - it’s about the services.
Likewise, with family service administration - you and others are zeroing in on this woman’s orientation as though it will be THE deciding issue for EVERY single decision to be made throughout the entire state for all the thousands of kids in care. When the rest of us will say, you’re being absurd: the agency must care for kids and families, end of story.
So - i would only suggest that you re-think that hyperbole. I think it expresses a fear - which you can have and I can respect as you having it. However, in operational reality, I don’t think you have anything to be worried about - the agencies are far too interested in keeping kids safe and keeping costs down.
Seriously - if you ever want to really understand the spectrum of what gets a kid removed versus placed back in a home, volunteer in one of the removal agencies sometime. You have no idea.
Dean Anonymous
on Wed, 3rd Jan 2007 3:47 pm
Here is an e-mail that was sent to all staff by Helen Jones-Kelley’s secretary.
>>> “Laquita Kelly” 1/3/2007 9:08 AM >>>
Please NOTE: This is the 2nd offering of “The Wise and Peaceful Heart”. The day has changed from Monday to Thursday, to accommodate those who were unable to make it on Mondays during the Fall.
The Wise and Peaceful Heart: Cultivating the Inner Skills of Peacemaking
A 12-Week program of focused contemplative practice with Kate Johnson
At the Dayton International Peace Museum, 208 W. Monument Ave.
Thursday Evenings, February 1- April 19, 2007, 7-8.30 pm
We want to change the world! And we will. But how?
Much of our attention, as peace activists, is focused on external realities: the war, violence in the media, the political and economic structures of oppression and marginalization. These are the institutionalized expressions and causes of violence. And to change the world, we need to transform the culture that gives them validation. But we also need to change the individual consciousness that supports and contributes to our violence-promoting culture.
As activists, we may feel that we’ve “got it all together”, “the right beliefs, the right motivations, the right responses”, it’s the “others” who need to change. But if we look closer, we can see that there’s plenty of room for development right in our own hearts and minds. And it is here, in our own centers of consciousness, that we need to make our first stand for peace.
In these twelve weeks, we will learn and practice a variety of contemplative methods, based on Buddhist meditations, for cultivating the skills of peace:
§ Equanimity
§ Empathy
§ Compassion
§ Forgiveness
§ Loving Kindness
§ Acceptance
§ Gratitude
§ Commitment
The program will combine individual and group meditation practice with collaborative learning and exploration of what it means to have *inner peace*, how we can develop and assess it, and how we can then use it as a powerful tool to make peace in the world.
The group will be limited to 15. No fee, but a small donation ($2-$5) to the Peace Museum each week will not go amiss.
Conservative Culture
on Wed, 3rd Jan 2007 9:44 pm
Not surprising… but a big thank you for the tip. If anyone else has other ‘whistle blower’ items please forward them to me. We will be watching the new liberal administration. This is just the start.