We often receive emails at Kidjacked from visitors who believe 'the system' ultimately works in their favor. That even if it isn't 100% effective, the majority of the time, it is the best solution. This is, quite frankly, bull crap.

What does CPS (and their ilk) truly accomplish? Seriously. What do they accomplish? It's a laudible goal: to remove children from a harmful environment; to intervene and do "what's right" for the child.

But is that what they're really after? Staff at any CPS office are exactly that: staff. Employees. PAID workers, expected to intervene on behalf of children because it's in the childs best interest. It isn't. They're not paid to provide excellent service or flip burgers or develop a cure for cancer. They're paid to take children from their homes. Period. In order to get paid, children must continue to be removed. If children are not being removed then maybe there aren't really families that need the "service" provided by these government employees, so their jobs are not secure. So they take children from their homes. More than they could ever possibly follow up on to ensure that the environments to which they are transplanted are an improvement. The more children they harvest, the more money they make. That's the way it is. It's NOT about saving children. It's about getting a paycheck.

Now, to those who complain to us that CPS (and their ilk) are "doing their best" and that they're necessary in order to make the physically or sexually abusive parents do what's right, I have a simple question:

What have YOU done to intervene?

• Have YOU confronted an abusive parent?
• Have YOU stepped in to offer assistance to a hurt child?
• Have YOU offered to babysit a neighbors' child that might otherwise be staying home alone, since the parent cannot afford a sitter?
• Have YOU called a neighbors extended family to see if they were aware of the problems they face?
• Have YOU rescheduled your own private life over concern for someone elses child?
• Have YOU gone out of your way to help?
• Have YOU ever been part of the solution?

Now answer the questions again, this time excluding those events where you passed the buck to CPS. That really is a perfect analogy, since that's exactly what's happening. You're passing the buck - you're selling that family to a government agent whose sole interest is to earn a paycheck. Sure, there are some "good" CPS workers out there, just like there are "good" teachers, "good" IRS agents, and "good" congressmen. It simply doesn't matter how well-intentioned an employee is when the system is corrupt and designed with exploitation as the basis for their income.

If your fantasy of assistance involves trusting a government agency to both intervene in a timely manner AND to do the right thing - you're in need of more help than any abused child. Intervention is not a phone call.

The next time you see wrong, fix it. Yourself. Immediately. Don't expect someone else to step in. They aren't there. And chances are, they don't care.

No government agent, no matter how much they're paid, can ever hope to achieve what a single dedicated person can do at the right time, in the right place. You will be that person some day. How you choose to respond will be your legacy. That child who ran up to you on the street and begged you for protection; the single mother who told you she couldn't take it anymore; the visibly bruised teenage girl who met your eyes as you walked into a crowded restaurant; the young parents living in a tent with their infant child because they can't keep a job; these are the people that you could have helped. You don't have to be Rambo or Princess Di - you just have to have heart enough to step up when it's time. Your actions could make the difference between an abusive single father and a nurturing family.

We are the sum of our actions. I will continue to intervene, and I won't ever do it just so I can pay my rent or get a "child removal" bonus. I hope you do, too.

Labels: CPS, finance, foster care