I do the same thing at times. Look at the exchange Rambi and I had, where I was broadly condemning our social services agencies and she took me to task, pointing out that there were many concerned people in the system and that it had protected many vulnerable children.
Whoa, Christopher. It is nice to see you confessing to an occasional weakness. But, as I remember that exchange, it was quite different from your description of it. My impression at the time was that Rambi was responding not to your "broad condemnation" of our social services agencies,in general, but to what she perceived as your "broad condemnation" of social workers, in particular.
Out of curiosity, I went back to the exchange, and it seems to confirm my impression. First, your post to CobaltBlue (emphasis mine):
BTW, I do NOT support the current social services systems, which almost everywhere are a travesty. Don't forget, right across the mountains from where I live we had the infamous Wenatchee cases. You will notice if you actually read my posts that every time I talk about government services that a) focus on benefits for the child and b) treat the recipient with respect and dignity.
Since you were in the system for a while, can you explain to me why virtually every social services worker I come across starts with the propositions that a) she (and it usually is a she) knows far better than any parent what is good for every child, b) parents are assumed to be evil until proved otherwise, but no parent has ever proved otherwise to the satisfaction of a social services agency, at most the agency admits they can't PROVE that the parent is evil, c) to treat people with respect and dignity violates some fundamental principle of social servicing?
It was at this point that Rambi intervened, to say, among other things:
Even after all these years, it upsets me to hear someone so ready to criticize the workers in the trenches with little understanding or compassion for what is often a thankless job.
Message 10703806
In your response, you repeat your condemnation of the "workers in the trenches" -- at least of all those you have met:
But I have not yet worked with a social worker who started with the presumption of innocence on the part of parents or alleged abusers. There is always, IME, a sense of "where there's a
report of a problem that's smoke, where there's smoke there must be fire, so rather than investigate whether there really is a fire or whether it is just a BBQ on somebody's porch, we are going in with hoses on full blast to root out and extinguish this fire."
Message 10707239
The reason I bring this up is because I am occasionally troubled by your manner of approaching an argument, Christopher. For one thing, you often do not stick to the "facts."
Joan |
