More Child Protective Services Abuse

By Selwyn Duke

Imagine this: You mistake an alcoholic beverage for a soft drink and give it to your child.  He then imbibes a relatively small amount of it and is none the worse for it. 

You then get investigated by Child Protective Services (CPS) and lose custody of your children.

This happened to a man named Christopher Ratte, who gave his son Mike's Hard Lemonade at a baseball game.  Ratte, a tenured archeology professor, was surprised when a guard at the game told him the product contained alcohol, as he didn't even know that there was such a thing as alcoholic lemonade (OK, he's a fossil, but that's not a sin).  To lend this a little more perspective, nobody in the Ratte family watches much TV, which is to their credit.

The Rattes did get their children back after a couple of days, but this is nevertheless a perfect example of the tyranny of CPS.  We have lowered the threshold for government involvement in the family far too much, and the result is that the state increasingly treats our children as if they're its own.

This story speaks volumes about the state of the West.  First, the state in which this took place, Michigan, actually prohibits parents from giving their own children alcohol.  This is insane.  There are many cultures in which kids might drink a bit of wine, and there's nothing wrong with it.  Even when I was a boy, my parents allowed me to try their alcoholic beverages (they didn't drink much) to satisfy my curiosity.  My reaction was  a typical one, "Yuck!"  And that was that.

Getting back to the story, the security guard who noticed Ratte's son drinking the beverage reported the family to the authorities.  What kind of person does such a thing?  Is common sense completely dead? 

In fact, it seems that everyone involved in this sorry affair just mindlessly went by the book.  Now, I know that likening people to the Nazis has become the cheapest shot in the book, but c'mon.  A good person has to use discernment and know when "just following orders" is no longer an excuse.  God's law takes precedence over man's law.

Unfortunately, lamentably, human nature is such that most people will just follow orders  regardless of the morality of what is prescribed.  It much reminds me of the Milgram experiment, which found that most people would administer what they believed were fatal electric shocks to a subject when a researcher insistently told them to do so.

As for CPS, I absolutely despise it.  Quite frankly, many social workers are loathsome creatures, being as they tend to be godless people who worship the state.  They're cut from the same stone as psychologists (here is my recent piece on psychology).  And, no, I've never had an encounter with CPS myself, but I'm aware of too many people -- both those I've known personally and those I've read about in the media -- who have been persecuted by its storm troopers.

If I had my druthers, I'd close down every CPS agency in the country.

                  Protected by Copyright

Comments

[Denny Zantzinger]

“Close down every CPS agency in the country…”

Now, there is an absolutely smashing idea! And it would probably work in a happy place like Westchester County, where I’m sure the very worst thing that happens to a kid is that the crust on his watercress sandwich hasn’t been properly trimmed.

But, in the real world, where kids are physically and sexually abused by the very people who should be protecting them (their darling drug-addled, psychotic, mean and often out-and-out criminal parents) someone has to look out for them. Unfortunately, even if that is the literal nanny of the big nanny state you so desperately fear.

I suppose we could hope for some sort of Devine intervention in these cases, where parents prey on their kids. You know, starve them; beat them; make them live in an environment where you wouldn’t keep your poodle; burn them; engage in fun sexual activities with them; pimp them out.

You know… those kinds of things that we don’t talk about at the country club. But, sadly I’d say that intervention from above has been historically lacking in these sad circumstances. So who is going to do? Somebody from the United Way? Catholic Charities perhaps? Maybe we should simply leave that nasty, but essential task, to the kindness of others?

Yes, I’m with you! Get rid of that meddling CPS. Get rid of the cops too while you’re at it! They often march hand-in-hand down the road of oppression with those low bred, evil and Godless social workers.

Just give everyone a gun to protect themselves. Now there you go. And I’ll bet, you actually believe, if that were the case, better men would prevail.

[Bala Cynwyd Divorce Lawyer]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading about Child Custody. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often..