Cloning. If humans are cloned, are they property?, or humans?

Patent US 6,211,429, granted to the University of Missouri on April 3, 2001 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) was written so broadly that it appears to include human cloning and products of cloning in its protection Continue reading Cloning. If humans are cloned, are they property?, or humans?

Fostered or Forgotten?

Leaving them there with no one to advocate for them, and do you want to know how it almost always ends? It almost always ends in solitary confinement until they kill themselves or a jailer loses it and kills them. They have no family to support them. Most of the time family times are severed and children are moved away from anyone and everything they know. We have to do better! Continue reading Fostered or Forgotten?

Homeless People

The rising cost of living is making it so that people living on minimum wage cannot afford housing.It is hard to solve problems that we can’t identify. Each individual is different and with each individual difference there are individual circumstances that brought them to become homeless. Continue reading Homeless People

INTERVIEW WITH A HOMELESS COUPLE

Homelessness has to be addressed by meeting people where they are at. Understanding concepts of culture, social structure, socialization, social interaction, organization, and deviation surrounding homelessness to meet people where they are, identify their strengths, and identify physical and psychological needs. True Colors, Love Well, and 211 may be able to help Continue reading INTERVIEW WITH A HOMELESS COUPLE

Do the best you can until you know better.

It was a curse in that I missed out on knowing that I have at least 4 siblings. I missed out on knowing what it was like to have a sibling relationship. I missed out knowing them, as human beings, as my siblings, until I found them more than 36 years after being separated from them. (I was the only one of the 5 of us who was adopted.) Continue reading Do the best you can until you know better.

Pastor, board member of a foster parent association, a father of adopted children himself, Sentenced to 30 for producing and transporting child pornography

Indicted were David Pettigrew and Chad Rider. Pettigrew Pettigrew was the head pastor of Denison Church of the Nazarene, a board member of a foster parent association, a father of adopted children, a crossing guard, and a substitute teacher at Neblett Elementary. Pettigrew is also married to an unnamed school teacher who is a mandated reporter! Continue reading Pastor, board member of a foster parent association, a father of adopted children himself, Sentenced to 30 for producing and transporting child pornography

88% of children rescued in sex trafficking operations were trafficked from state custody!

The FBI compiled data that shows that of the nearly 25,000 runaways reported to NCMEC in 2017, one in seven were likely victims of child sex trafficking. Of those children, 88 percent were in the care of social services when they went missing. Continue reading 88% of children rescued in sex trafficking operations were trafficked from state custody!

Child Sex Trafficking and the Child Welfare System

Homeless children, foster care system, refugees, and LGBTQ youth are the most likely victims of childhood sexual assault. It is estimated that 100,000 children are sexually exploited in the United States each year. Continue reading Child Sex Trafficking and the Child Welfare System

How Foster Care Youth Become Trafficking Victims

Predators prey on children from broken homes, group homes, foster care, and runaways. The U.S. Department of State reports that foster care is a consistent problem. Live-in parents and step parents are 20 times more likely to abuse a child than a biological parent. City reports show that between 60% to as many as 90% of the children rescued in sex trafficking stings were in foster care before they were trafficked. Often, when they are rescued, they are returned to state custody where they will likely run away again. Continue reading How Foster Care Youth Become Trafficking Victims

Let’s talk about adoption

Let’s talk about adoption. How does adoption affect a child? Do they really feel like their new family “saved them”? Do they want to go home? Do they want to run away? I watched as the Department of Human Services Division of Children and Families made an attempt to celebrate “Reunification Month” last month and honestly the feedback they received from the families they have “helped” was not so good. Parents and grandparents spoke out on the Arkansas Department of Children and Family Services Facebook post saying, “Yes, Let’s talk about reunification” and sharing their experiences with the department with each other. Whoever moderates that page deleted the post most likely because the feedback from family members told the stories of separation rather than reunification. Throughout the whole month of June only one post remains on their page and it celebrates foster parents at the time of reunification and describes how a foster parent feels when a child goes home. Continue reading Let’s talk about adoption