Children should have the opportunity to grow up to become contributing and caring adults. When children are born, in an ideal world, parents should want those children and be prepared to care for them and nurture them to adulthood. It’s all too close to our reality that this is just not happening for too many of our children today.
New Hampshire’s DCYF has come under attack for coming up short in its mission to protect children when parents don’t fulfill their responsibilities or when children suffer at the hands of others. I’d offer a not-so-gentle reminder that DCYF must step in when the primary protection for children, their parents, are not able to get the job done for a variety of reasons, some good and some far less valid.
As a parenting educator, I would continually tell parents and guardians that babies do not come with a “how-to” manual. Parents do better when offered opportunities to learn how children develop and how to support and nurture them.
In a perfect world, we would not need a DCYF; in our flawed communities today DCYF personnel are overwhelmed, understaffed, short of resources and challenged beyond my ability to comprehend how that division can make it work. As a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer, I am privileged to advocate for children whose best interests need to be represented to the court. CASA volunteers work with children and their families, foster parents, schools and anyone else in contact with children under the courts’ jurisdiction. And yes, we work alongside DCYF personnel who also have the best interest of kids and families in mind.
The focus should be on creating positive outcomes for today’s children who are tomorrow’s adults. DCYF needs our support, including additional resources for staffing and programs. When abused and neglected animals receive more publicity and public outpouring of support than abused and neglected children, I fear we’ve misplaced our focus. Let’s get together to support families and children in every possible manner.
Charlene Baxter
New London
I am writing in regard to the article in the Sunday Valley News about the overhaul of regulations for the size of animal cages.
There is no justification to cage cats and dogs for 23 out of 24 hours. Rather than allow the cage space to be reduced, the governor should veto this bill and send it back to the Legislature to amend so that animals are not allowed to be caged for reproductive profit and other reasons.
I used a yardstick and measured the current cage sizes. It is unimaginable to think that an animal can have any quality of life when it is so confined that it can’t walk, play or even be comfortable.
Additionally, any person that has a dog for guarding livestock and doesn’t understand the need for protection from frigid winter weather and the scorching heat of summer, shouldn’t have a dog. Even cars have garages for protection.
Joan Harvey
Woodstock
Imagine for a moment how the Republican-dominated Congress would have reacted had President Obama engaged in even a single act of the kind of nonsense that now emanates daily from the Trump White House. Consider, for instance, what Congress would have done had Obama casually disclosed to a long-time adversary highly classified intelligence without following proper protocol. Virtually every committee of the Senate and House would have held countless televised hearings with Republican members of Congress, as well as some Democrats, each using every second of their allotted time to bloviate about the irreparable harm that Obama caused the country and how he imperiled our national security and that of a trusted ally. Ted Cruz no doubt would piously declare that Obama’s blunder placed at risk the very survival of the heavens and the universe!
Ultimately all this televised political theater would have led the Republicans to the inescapable conclusion that for the good of our country President Obama must resign and return to Kenya or face impeachment.
Now let us return to the reality of President Trump. He has engaged in an endless stream of extremely dubious conduct from the moment he set foot in the White House. The latest revelations about his efforts to derail the Russian investigation by requesting that FBI director James Comey end it and his firing of Comey are no surprise. The man has not only demonstrated that he is incompetent but he also lacks a moral compass and is utterly unethical.
In the few short months Trump has been in office, the volume of his and his administration’s numerous lies, misdeeds, and possible criminal acts pile up daily.
In light of this disaster that is unfolding before our very eyes, which does indeed imperil our country, the silence of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan as congressional leaders is deafening. I can only surmise that they place party before country. Shame on them!
Mark Latham
Hartford