I am a mandated reporter; that is one who is legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect including threat of harm. Last week I completed my yearly training for my substitute teacher certification. I was reminded of the following:
- Threat of Harm is “substantial risk of harm to [one's] health or welfare.”
- Neglect is “a failure of caretakers to provide adequate emotional and physical care [including] failing to provide food, clothing, shelter or healthcare that is necessary.”
- Physical signs of neglect include “Looks undernourished and is usually hungry [and] is consistently dirty and has severe body odor [and] lacks sufficient clothing for the weather [and] lacks needed medical or dental care.”
- Behavioral signs of neglect include “Begging for or stealing food [and] abusing alcohol or other drugs [and] engaging in risky behavior [and] a poor ability to relate to others.”
- Mental Abuse “can mean any mental injury which shall include only observable and substantial impairment of [one's] mental or psychological ability to function, caused by cruelty.”
- Cruelty is to willfully or knowingly cause pain or distress.
In the context of this training, these definitions were specific to school-age children but by leaving out the references to children they translate easily to a much larger picture. So my question is, who do I report us to? As a nation and as a culture we are guilty, and as individuals we are complicit. We knowingly and often willingly cause pain and distress by ignoring the homeless, by allowing the threat of evictions, by attaching a stigma to hunger and food insecurity, by stratifying healthcare, by suffering Capitalism. We talk the talk when it comes to our children, but we don't even do that much for distressed adults. And how much of that fallout lands on our children, often despite the best efforts of one or more parents and/or caregivers? And how can our abused and neglected children grow up to be anything but distressed adults?
There are currently more than 750,000 homeless on our American streets. More than 3.5 million evictions are filed each year taxing our system of Justice demanding that it dole out injustice. More than 18 million households in America suffer from food insecurity, uncertain of where, when, how, or what, and too anxiety-ridden to worry over why. Healthcare, housing, education, sustenance, childcare, employment, and credit are necessities that have been turned into commodities that are subject to the whims of capitalism. Perhaps our ignorance would be understandable if there were no solutions, but the problems could be easily solved and our lack of concern is inexcusable. As stated in a previous post, Pulitzer Prize winning writer Matthew Desmond in his book “Poverty, By America” says “By one estimate, simply collecting unpaid federal income taxes from the top 1 percent of households would bring in some $175 billion a year. We could just about fill the entire poverty gap in America if the richest among us simply paid all the taxes they owed.” (Page 137). Today instead of Equality, Liberty, Individualism, and the Opportunity to Pursue Happiness, we are driven by Threat of Harm, Neglect, Mental Abuse, and Cruelty: America is not a great country.
America is no longer even a good or decent country; and each and every one of us is complicit.
