Thus Says Suzanne...

Pat Robertson is an idiot

The earthquake in Haiti is apparently (according to this bonehead) because they made a deal with the devil.  

Oh hell to the no!

The ick factor here cannot be overstated.  

Update - The previously posted video became unavailable.  This is a fresh link and should work.

this just keeps getting better and better (that's sarcasm you hear)

When the bus driver picked up the youngster this morning she told me the bus would be coming at 6:15 tomorrow and thereafter.  Really?  At the beginning of the year it came at 7:05 AM.  That's a big change.  School doesn't start until 8 AM and it's only a 15 minute drive. 

She gets out at 2:10 in the afternoon but they want to bring her home at 4 PM.  Right, because we wouldn't want her to have a life or anything.

All told, they propose that she spend over three and a half hours a day on the bus which is three hours longer than it takes to drive her.  School is only in session for six hours.  On what planet is it reasonable to have her spend more than another 50% of that time on the bus?  That's unreasonable for a kid with no issues. 

I'm so ready to get an updated IEP in place.  This is beyond ridiculous.

Roman Polanski - the cold, hard facts

I am astonished to see people coming out in support of the child rapist Roman Polanski.

Lets' be clear.  He accepted a plea deal and made a confession.  It wasn't until he realized he would actually be held accountable for his crimes that he bailed for Europe. 

Debra Winger came out in support of him yesterday whining about how this had upset the art community, and advocated for his release.  Whoopi Goldberg talked about how it wasn't "rape-rape." 

Let's also be clear about what it was and then someone can help me understand why he should be freed, and how what he did wasn't "rape-rape."

He groomed a 13-year-old girl for the act, telling her he would photograph her for Vogue, and worked his way up to partially clothed images.  He provided alcohol and quaaludes to the 13-year-old girl.  He suggested she get into the hot tub for more images and instructed her to dispense with her clothing. He disrobed and got into the hot tub with her.  He took her into the house (remember she had been been drugged and plied with alcohol) where he proceeded to engage in oral sex with her.  Then he penetrated her vaginally but when he learned she was not on birth control (why would she be - she was 13) he decided to penetrate her anally where he completed the sex act.  

It's my assertion that anyone voicing support for his freedom is profoundly intellectually challenged and/or morally bankrupt.  Justice delayed is justice denied.

scorched earth

This bus driver situation is pretty much at critical mass this morning.  The head of the transportation department arranged to have a different driver for the youngster but when I asked the driver what time to expect her home in the afternoon I was told between 3:50 and 4:00 PM.  That's more than three and a half hours on the bus every day!  She's only in class for six hours a day.  This is completely unacceptable so unless the principal (who is working on the situation this morning after an e-mail exchange with me) resolves this before the youngster gets home this afternoon I'm going to switch to a scorched earth approach to this situation.  That won't be pretty but I guarantee it will be effective.

My patience for this foolishness is at an end.

the bus driver messed with the wrong kids

Imagine for a moment that you are the adoptive parent (very recently having accomplished the adoption after three years of fostering the child) of a child with a background of profound abuse and neglect in their family of origin.  Imagine that for the last three years you have engaged in three different types of therapy with them, and helped write an IEP to place them in a special program designed to meet the needs of severely emotionally disturbed children.

Now imagine that the child gets a new bus driver.  The new driver brings your child home an hour late.  The child comes home on the first day reporting that the children asked the driver to turn down the music, but that the driver responded by turning it up.  Your child reports that suddenly there are teenagers on the bus and that one of them gets into a shouting name-calling match with a friend/classmate of your child.  When the bus driver moves the friend/classmate to the front of the bus to sit next to your child, your child lets the driver know that you have instructed your child (for very, very, very good reasons) not to sit next to boys on the bus.  The driver tells your child, "Your mother is not driving the bus and she is not the boss on the bus."  A teenaged girl takes your child's backpack and places it behind the driver.  Your child comes home very unhappy and confused.  The other children on the bus are standing up on the bus and are very agitated.

The next day your child comes home sobbing and tells you that on the ride home the bus driver told her "shut the hell up, look outside and enjoy the ride." Your child is so frightened that she says she can't ride the bus anymore.

Well, if it were my child (and it is) there would be a big dust-up involving formal letters of complaints until I was assured that this driver would never again drive my child or her friends/classmates anywhere again.

no to infinity

"You are going to be completely impressed...I turned my life completely around and to be able to understand that, you have to start there."

In 1991 Jaycee Lee Dugard was an 11-year-old girl on the way to her bus stop when she was abducted by Phillip Garrido and his wife (by their own admission).  Until this week Jaycee's family was left to wonder what became of her.  I'll save you some math and tell you that Jaycee is now 29 years old.  She spent the last 18 years in captivity, being held in Garrido's back yard.  She bore him two children, now ages 11 and 15, who have never been to school, never been to a doctor. 

How many rapes can one endure before it forever changes who they are and how they view the world?  And, suppose that happens to an 11-year-old, after having been taken from her family and life.  Suppose she endures years of this abuse while living in her abductor's backyard, bearing not one but two children by her rapist when she is just a child herself.  She gets no formal education.  Can she ever get back what was taken from her?  Her sense of safety, her childhood, her innocence, her education, her family? 

What did it do to her family who watched from their yard as she was kidnapped?  Her stepfather was viewed as suspect until this week when Jaycee resurfaced.  The marriage did not survive.  Jaycee's mother reportedly cried for a week every year on the anniversary of the kidnapping of her beautiful young daughter. 

So when Garrido says "You are going to be completely impressed...I turned my life completely around and to be able to understand that, you have to start there," I say no to infinity.  I am not impressed.  I don't care if he turned his life around.  I will never understand his selfish and obscene actions. 

He cannot ever make right what he has made wrong.  He cannot return what he stole from Jaycee and her family. 

oh yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what I'll do (rant)

The youngster has an appointment about an hour away which is usually scheduled for every six to eight weeks.  Thursday marked the fourth occasion when she was driven down there only to be told upon arrival that the person with whom she had an appointment is not in that day.  This is a person with letters after their name, and no one on staff seems to think a courtesy phone call is in order.  This represents eight hours of the youngster's life sitting in the car for no useful purpose, six hours of my life lost, and two hours of my mother's life lost forever.

I contacted the youngster's managing social worker to let him know.  His suggestion?  Maybe call the day before to make sure the appointment is still on, and call again the next day call to make sure again.  (In spite of the fact that his office is right next door to the professional in question he couldn't be bothered to walk over to check on this.  I won't be asking for his help in the future.)

Since when did it become my job to supervise the receptionists at this professional's office?  I'm pretty sure that it's a pretty basic part of a receptionist's job to schedule appointments correctly and to contact clients when there is a cancellation.  In the real world (the one outside of foster care) I would fire the professional based on the continued incompetence of his office staff.

no you may not

*&#^@#( telemarketers.  I flipping hate when they call.

 "May I please speak with ABC about XYZ?"

 Well, I'm working and I don't take calls from telemarketers. 

"I'm not a telemarketer."

Okay, those are fighting words because I don't know this person, I didn't ask her to call, and she was clearly a telemarketer.  See how that works?  I began to wish her a nice day but she interrupted me (not a good strategy) so I switched to what the youngster would call my "strong voice" and suggested she not call here again, ever.  Then I hung up. 

So if you are a telemarketer, no you may not speak with ABC about XYZ - or anything else for that matter.  And don't call me again.

Update - I was so bent out of shape after this call that I did a google search and found this video.  I feel better now. 

painfully ignorant

Sometimes I come across something on the web that makes me stop and think.  I found this question posed on a question site, dated September of last year.  I don't know what happened to the girl (and I do mean girl) but I hope she chose a different path.

QUESTION: I'm 16 and I'm on Birth Control.
Me and my boyfriend thought I was pregnant about two months ago. But than we found out I was just really late.
But after all that thinking that I was; we've decided to try having a baby.
I know I'm young.
But I've thought EVERYTHING through.
And I really think I'm ready and that I can handle everything of having a baby.

And for the past month and a half, I've been skipping days on my pills and taking them at the wrong times.
And we've been trying to have a baby.
But every time we try and have a baby about two or three days in a row, and I've skipped my pills; I think that I'm pregnant. (because I start feeling sick and stuff and think I could be having symptoms of being pregnant.) But then the next day I end up starting my period.

And it's VERY disappointing.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong..!

I don't smoke or drink.
I've been eating healthy foods.
And I still can't figure out what is so wrong.

Could you PLEASE help me..? =[
I can't handle all this disappointment...
I'm so close to giving up, but.. I really don't want to give up.
I want this baby.

Please help me.
Thanks.

-Karissa
p.s.
I hope I didn't write too much and I hope it made sense. =]

And here is her follow-up response to the respondent's query:

Well I've thought about all the pain I'll have to go through, and I'm getting a job, and me and my boyfriend are going to save up money to support the baby, and no matter what, I'm going to stay in school and pass high school.
And I know for a fact that if I had a baby, my mom would be there to support me.
And I have a bunch of friends and family that will be there for me too. =]
And I don't really go out much with friends, so that doesn't bother me.
And me and my boyfriend have been together for half a year.
But I KNOW he loves me.
And I love him more than anything. =]
And to me, having a baby would mean I wouldn't ever be alone, and I'd have something that was ONLY me and my boyfriends and no one else's, and no one could take that away from us. =]
And also, having a baby would mean that me and my boyfriend would be together forever. =]

And I'm very responsible, so I'd be able to take care of the baby.
And I used to watch a bunch of babies, so I have experience with that also.
Hmm..
I'm sure theres more things I've thought about but I can't quite remember most of the things.
But I know I'm ready.

I'm also very shy, so I think that if I have a baby, then I'd be able to open up more. =] And just.. be myself.

Did I miss anything? =]