How to Help Kids in Poverty – Ignore Fathers
That's the message from this piece out of Grand Rapids, MI (Grand Rapids Opinion, 1/29/09).
Michigan, dependent as it is on the auto industry, is in bad shape, so increasing numbers of kids there are in danger of falling into poverty. According to the Grand Rapids Opinion, there are many things the state can do to address that problem. But in that whole list, connecting fathers to children does not appear.
Everyone who's read two words on the subject of childhood poverty knows that father absence is perhaps the biggest contributor to it. But if you're the editor of a major newspaper and you want to write an article about addressing child poverty, you don't mention fathers. This makes sense? It does not.
What we see in this editorial is the preference for the state over fathers. It argues for increased welfare and food stamp availability and higher subsidies for daycare. Now none of that is necessarily bad. Indeed, given that the problems are immediate and need immediate action, I'm all for food stamps, unemployment assistance, etc. I understand that if all the laws that separate fathers from children were repealed tomorrow, it would still be years before we saw great changes in child poverty.
But to argue for ever-greater taxpayer funded stand-ins for fathers when so many fathers are standing around waiting, hoping and sometimes filing suit to be able to do their parental jobs is madness.
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