Napoleon

Peg and I have been away from our U.S.A. home for almost 5 months now and we are each missing some of what makes our cabin on the Oklahoma prairie so special. Peg is nostalgic for kids, grandkids, great grandkids, siblings and friends, you know, Gentle Reader, the things most people get misty-eyed over. I feel her pain but, frankly, I find that what our current home in the old Soviet Union country of Georgia really needs to join the family of democratic nations is a good bowl of chili and some hand-rubbed and torturously slow smoked Oklahoma beef brisket accompanied by a few ears of southern Indiana sweet corn.

And while Georgia claims to be the 8,000-year-old birthplace of wine, a theory which Peg and I have certainly tested, I thirst for a cold Corona with salt and lime. One cannot truly swig a real draught of room temperature red wine as you can a long swallow of cold beer to follow the piquant spice of garlic and cayenne pepper. Tell me, is it any wonder these Georgians worry about some crazy Russian neighbor on their northern border wanting to once again invade them and take their most valuable natural resource, their wine? Russia has no chili, no brisket and nothing but vodka to drown their sorrows about pesky Ukraine; of course Russia is a concern.

I have written several columns about how America could better address Russian aggression than by throwing forty billion dollars worth of military assets into the same type of winter Napoleon and Hitler did. Russian generals January, February and March may not know much about military strategy, but they sure know plenty about the logistics of winter warfare.

Why hasn’t Commander-in-Chief Biden read my columns and called to ask my advice? I would tell the President the same thing I would tell the Georgian McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken stores just two blocks from our Batumi, Georgia apartment that put out poor imitations of Georgian food disguised as quasi-American cuisine; they could make billions with a good bowl of real chili and a beef brisket sandwich. These Georgian people are smart and their traditional Georgian food is both tasty and interesting. This is probably due to thousands of years of mixed cultures from both Europe and Asia. But if we could just introduce them to what truly makes America so strong, Russia would not stand a chance.

I confess, it is not just the war effort that moves me. If we don’t get some fine southwestern chili and bar-b-q and succulent southern Indiana sweet corn soon, Peg and I are going to have to fly home and rely upon friends and family for sustenance.

Sometimes we see damage after it has been done by kids to public property, such as library grounds and city parks. Usually we do not see the damage as it is being done to children by their neglectful or abusive caretakers. The financial and aesthetic loss to public property upsets us. The financial and psychic loss resulting from child neglect and abuse dwarfs the related juvenile vandalism.

Napoleon’s soldiers used the Sphinx for target practice and the Taliban destroyed priceless religious icons. Vandalism is neither new nor novel. Neither is child abuse and neglect. They have both been with us since Eve stole that apple and Cain was not sufficiently supervised. However, since America has become entangled in the opioid crisis we have seen an exponential increase in juvenile misbehavior and damage to those juveniles from the adults who are entrusted with their care.

In 2012 the State of Indiana’s Department of Child Services removed 8,897 children from their families. Only 5 years later 16,834 children had to be removed for their own care and safety or to protect others. The national average of child removals is 5.5 per 1000. Indiana’s removal rate is 13 per 1000. Of course, these figures only include the children who come to the DCS’s attention. There is little doubt the real need for child protection is a great deal higher.

Our state-wide crisis in needed intervention and provision of services such as food, shelter, education, counseling, clothing and medical care is so dire the state DCS Director, former Judge Mary Beth Bonaventura, just quit in despair in December, 2017. As she left she told Governor Eric Holcomb who had to appoint her replacement that Indiana’s policies in DCS matters, “…[A]ll but ensure children will die.”

In response the Governor has initiated a study to investigate the problems we face as a state in caring for our most vulnerable citizens. The Child Welfare Policy Practice Group, a non-profit agency located in Montgomery, Alabama, has been contracted to study Indiana’s problems and needs. Ms. Frieda Baker of that agency came by the Court last week to speak with me about our situation in Posey County.

I will bring you up-to-date in the next few weeks.

Food For Thought

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