Tim Barrus New York Times
Trump happened.
This American enigma has devastated and wiped out an incomprehensible number of American lives. And then, there are lives standing at edges of the abyss.
So much of America is holding its cumulative breath waiting to see if their government is able to respond to their collective need for immediate assistance.
Republicans or no republicans.
In spite of the fact that nothing within the context of their government is immediate.
The “American family,” a quaint idea, doesn’t know much about the part of itself that stopped holding its breath a long time ago.
Foster families.
Immediate assistance for foster families is relegated to states. Whose economic back has been broken. This has pressing consequences. Teen suicide is going up. Hopelessness is going up.
Republicans or no republicans.
Special education numbers are going up. Foster parents returning home from hospitals are unable to meet the urgent needs of children who arrive in the whirlwind of emergency placements that more often than not are based on horrendous and debilitating abuse.
Abuse is going up. Republicans or no republicans.
Adjacent, hair-trigger cutting is going up. Fear of going back to school has nothing to do with Little Johnny or Little Suzy complaining they miss their friends. Foster children often have no friends. They are often the new kids not new. Silent. Brooding. Broken. Coats on.
Hunger now haunts them. Once again, no one is minding the store. Republicans or no republicans.