Good morning!

“Just noticing…”

…It has been awhile since I posted anything on health. How are you all feeling out there? This is for you parents with children who are susceptible to ear infections. I know as a child I was, so this may be very helpful and illuminating:

Kids Given This Have 22 Times the Rate of Ear Infections

By Dr. Mercola

In the first video above, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) summarizes one of the most important scientific reviews on vaccines that was just published in August.

Barbara has been a pioneer for the last 30 years in vaccine safety and informed consent, and this discussion is of grave importance to everyone, including pediatricians and doctors.

What You Must Know about the Latest Vaccine Safety Review by IOM

The report was released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which is part of the National Academy of Sciences.

They’ve been around for over 100 years. The institute analyzes health policies and issues advice to the US government.

They’re funded not just by the government but also by pharmaceutical companies and independent philanthropic organizations and individuals.

They are considered a very prestigious scientific body in the world.

In the last three decades, the IOM has reviewed vaccine safety several times.

Their first reports came out in 1991 and 1994.

However, the latest report on this issue, released in August 2011 is very significant, and many still do not understand its true importance.

Over a period of three years, they reviewed over 1,000 studies on vaccines. Interestingly, they excluded studies funded by the pharmaceutical industry, although some of the studies were funded by government agencies independently.

The review focused on eight vaccines:

Perhaps the most important thing IOM did in this review is that they looked at two categories of science:

1. Epidemiological research (large studies comparing different groups of people against each other)
2. Bench science (research into the biological mechanisms at work within cells and molecules)

“This is very important because a lot of the studies that the CDC relies on as evidence that vaccines don’t cause any problems are epidemiological studies. This report is important because they looked at both kinds of science,” Barbara explains. “The most shocking conclusion of this report is that for more than a hundred bad health outcomes that have been reported after these eight vaccines have been given to people, they could not come to a conclusion as to whether or not those vaccines did or did not cause those adverse events!”

Some of those serious health problems included:

Why Couldn’t IOM Conclude Whether Vaccines are Causative Factors?

Why is it that the IOM was unable to determine whether there was a direct causative link between vaccines and the many serious health outcomes indicated in these studies? Barbara suggests four potential explanations:

1. The studies were not available in the published literature
2. There were too few studies showing the same link
3. The available studies were methodologically unsound
4. The available studies were conflicting (i.e. there was evidence both for and against)

Says Barbara:

“What I call this category is the ‘We Don’t Know’ category. When you think about it, these vaccines are mandated for children, and yet in most instances the scientific evidence [of safety] is so poor, they don’t know! When the report came out there were a lot of organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics that came forth and said, “They didn’t find causation… So vaccines are safe.” That’s NOT what that report said at all. I think people need to understand the significance of it… [T]he category of ‘We Don’t Know’ is a very important category…”

Individual Susceptibility was Discussed as a Co-Factor

The IOM report also discussed individual susceptibility; the fact that some people are more susceptible for biological reasons, including genetic reasons, to having an adverse event after a vaccination. According to the report, both epidemiologic and mechanistic research suggests that most individuals who experience an adverse reaction to vaccines have a preexisting susceptibility. However, the report also states that in most cases they don’t know what those individual susceptibilities are.

“They have taken a look and listed some that they believe are important,” Barbara says

Potential predispositions suggested in the report include:

• Genetic variation
• Age
• Coinciding illness
• Environmental factors

“Every physician who gives a vaccine should read this 600-page report,” Barbara says.  “That it is their responsibility because this is the latest report on the science of vaccination; of what’s in the published literature. 

They really need to take it seriously because if a patient that they vaccinate, whether it’s an adult or a child, has a deterioration in health after a vaccination… [the doctor] needs to not blow that off and say that’s just a coincidence.  They need to take it seriously and make a report to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), not to the manufacturer (who we know doesn’t give the CDC and FDA the proper information for them to follow up). You need to report to the government. 

And you need to not give that person another vaccination, unless you know for sure that that health problem was not caused by the vaccine.  And guess what?  Science says in all these categories they don’t know.  So the precautionary principle of “first do no harm,” that has got to be responsibility of every physician giving a vaccine.”

Many Parents Now Buck the System

About 13 percent of parents are now using an “alternative” vaccination schedule for their young children, according to a recent survey.  And two percent of parents are refusing vaccines altogether for their children.

According to Reuters:

“The Internet survey included 748 parents of kids between the ages of six months and six years. Of those, 13 percent said they used some type of vaccination schedule that differed from the CDC recommendations. That included refusing some vaccines or delaying vaccines until kids were older — mostly because parents thought that ‘seemed safer.’”

Among the parents who do follow the recommended childhood vaccination schedule, 28 percent still stated they think it would indeed be safer to delay the use of vaccines, and that the current vaccination schedule is far from ideal.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccination schedule for children aged six and younger includes vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, chicken pox, hepatitis, seasonal flu, and others. All in all, U.S. children are expected to get 48 doses of 14 vaccines by the time they’re six years old. By age 18, federal public health officials say they should have gotten a total of 69 doses of 16 vaccines.

Is this safe and beneficial in the short- and/or long-term? No one really knows, primarily because large studies comparing the health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children have not been a priority for vaccine researchers. Most vaccine studies are about developing more vaccines for children and adults to use.

Some claim studies comparing the health of highly vaccinated and unvaccinated children cannot be done because it would be “unethical” to leave children participating in the study unvaccinated in order to do the comparison.

But since there are numbers of American parents, who are already delaying or avoiding vaccinating their children altogether,  this hardly seems like a reasonable excuse. It seems more likely that comparing the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children in appropriately designed studies are avoided because the results might upset the proverbial apple cart.

Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated: Survey Reveals Who’s Healthier

However, that doesn’t mean there is a total absence of evidence about the health of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children to give us an indication of whether or not the use of many more vaccines by children is contributing to their being chronically ill. In December 2010, a survey was initiated by VaccineInjury.info to compare the health of vaccinated children with unvaccinated children. To date over 7,850 surveys have been submitted, and the study is ongoing, so if you have an unvaccinated child (or are unvaccinated yourself) and would like to submit your child’s health data, you can do so here.

Though this is obviously not a double-blind controlled study, and depends on the individuals submitting the data to give accurate information, it is still revealing. So far, the results show:

Are the Risks All in Your Head?

CNN sounds like an advertisement for Big Pharma in this featured article, using a combination of scare-tactics and guilt-tripping trigger points, such as “parents have no knowledge of the diseases their children are being inoculated against,” and “not only do unvaccinated children run the risk of becoming ill or worse, but they also endanger others who don’t have the option to vaccinate.”

Personally, I don’t believe either of those statements reflect what’s really happening. I believe the parents, who are taking a stand against their children being given too many vaccines, are the ones, who have taken the time to become informed and have carefully analyzed and evaluated the risks and benefits for their children.

As just discussed above, the only conclusion the IOM could reach after reviewing the available (independent) research is that we don’t know if all of these vaccines, individually or together, are in fact safe.

The media would have you believe that those who refuse vaccines are ignorant but when you examine the facts, mothers with college educations and higher incomes are actually LESS likely to vaccinate their children than those with less education.

Besides, I don’t think any parent, who is coming up against doctors throwing them out of their offices for refusing to use every recommended vaccine or wanting to use an individualized vaccination schedule, in this age of Big Pharma brainwashing, would even consider bucking the system without having good solid reason for doing so. After all, the price of nonconformity runs the gamut from being vilified by other parents and health professionals to being resolutely kicked out of some pediatricians’ offices!

The fact is that delaying and/or opting out of some vaccines can indeed be a safer alternative to maintaining good health. Whether or not it’s the most appropriate course of action for a particular child or adult can only be determined on a case-by-case basis. Each person is different, and it is these individual biological and environmental exposure differences that make a mass-vaccination policy so hazardous.

For example, the health of a child’s gut flora can significantly influence the risk of suffering vaccine complications and chronic health problems. For more information about this, please see my interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.

********

Readers: I am so behind in catching up. It has been a crazy busy week, and it hasn’t ended yet…all good but little time to check in. I’ll be back tomorrow though, as always….see ya then.

Hugs & Kisses…

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

“Occupy Your Town” is country wide. No surprise that “Occupy Oakland” is a huge player. Love that the passion for change is in my own backyard. So…today is the day.  ”Occupy Oakland” wants to shut down the city of Oakland with a citywide general strike. The proposed strike intends to close all banks and corporations for the day, while calling on laborers, teachers and students to join in en masse.

Oaklanders: Are you going to be there? If you plan on participating, there are some things you should know:

How YOU can Participate in the General Strike!

WAYS TO PARTICIPATE ON NOVEMBER 2 GENERAL STRIKE & DAY OF ACTION
called for by Occupy Oakland

Occupy Oakland is calling for no work and no school on November 2 as part of the general strike. We are asking that all workers go on strike, call in sick, take a vacation day or simply walk off the job with their co-workers. We are also asking that all students walk out of school and join workers and community members in downtown Oakland. All banks and large corporations must close down for the day or demonstrators will march on them.

The Occupy Oakland Strike Assembly has vowed to picket and or occupy any business or school which disciplines employees or students in any way for participating in the Nov 2 General Strike. Please email OccupyOaklandLaborSolidarity@gmail.com if you are the subject of any disciplinary action.

Occupy Oakland recognizes that not all workers, students and community members will feel able to strike all day long on November 2, and we welcome any form of participation which they feel is appropriate. We urge them to join us before or after work or during their lunch hours.

Below are some action ideas for strike participants to consider:

Gather in Downtown Oakland to help Shut Down the City

• Join the Mass Gatherings at 14th & Broadway 9:00am, 12:00pm, 5:00pm. Strike Rallies will be held at these times with political speakers as well as time for open mic so that everyone can make their voices heard. There will also be action announcements made from the stage on this intersection for those who are interested in participating in pickets and shut downs of banks and large corporations.
• Lead a march from your neighborhood, workplace, school, community center, place of worship etc into downtown Oakland to join one of these three mass gatherings. Have fun and be loud along the way to let people know why you are marching downtown!
• Form a mobile blockade or flying picket that can take over important intersections in downtown with street parties and other creative ways to make our voices heard and shut the city down.
• There will be numerous pickets and actions at banks and corporations across downtown but we need more! Get a group of friends, family members, co-workers or fellow students together to form an affinity group and make your voice heard and your presence felt at any of these locations in downtown. Let the stage on 14th & Broadway know about your action so they can announce it to the crowd.
• There are many other autonomous actions planned for the day that will be occurring throughout downtown. One of them is the anti-capitalist march at 2pm meeting at the intersection of Telegraph & Broadway and another is the Feminist & Queer bloc against capitalism that will meet at 4:30 at 14th & Broadway.
• Join the marches from downtown to shut down the Port of Oakland. These marches will be leaving at 4pm and another will be leaving at 5pm for the 2 mile march out to the port to stand in solidarity with the longshore workers and shut down the evening shift of the port.
• Join the 4pm Critical Mass ride from 14th & Broadway out to the Port to join the shut down
• Best not to drive into downtown: It is likely that many streets will be blocked to traffic so please bike or take public transportation if possible. It will also be useful to have a bicycle to move between actions or to march to the port.

Take Action in Your Own Neighborhoods and Communities

• Gather neighbors, co-workers, or fellow students together and organize group walks and small marches around the neighborhood to have fun, raise awareness and encourage others to join you in the streets! Bring noise makers, signs, banners and let your community know why your are participating in the strike.
• Stop at banks, large businesses, chain stores, gas stations, corporate headquarters, large commercial media outlets, etc. to protest and picket
• Gather in neighborhood centers and on the corners of main intersections to hold speak outs, BBQs and street parties – make your voice heard and raise awareness by reclaiming space where fellow community members can join you and talk about the issues that affect them most and how we can organize together to build a powerful movement
• If you must shop, only spend money at locally owned stores and as much as possible purchase locally-produced goods

Nonprofit and Community Organizations

• Use your personal and organizational social media accounts (websites, facebook, linked-in, electronic newsletters, etc) to support the actions and keep your constituencies updated about what is going on in the streets of Oakland.
• In the event of police violence, use your organization to denounce police repression and call for the release of all arrested strikers.
• Provide resources for your staff to participate: allow time away to participate in direct actions; encourage work on projects aligned with general strike and occupy goals, host sign and banner making parties!

Be Prepared

• Bring materials to make signs: Banner material. cardboard, poster paper, markers, paint, spray paint tape, dowels, etc
• Bring food and water to share!
• Bring noise makers, instruments, sound systems and other ways that we can transform downtown into a celebration of our collective power
• Write this legal number down on your body in case of arrest: 415.285.1011 The number will be staffed al day long and will coordinate legal support for those arrested in the strike.
• Remember these four common points that the General Strike Assembly has agreed upon:

1. Solidarity with the world-wide Occupy movement!
2. End police attacks on our communities!
3. Defend Oakland schools and libraries!
4. Against an economic system built on colonialism, inequality and corporate power that perpetuates all forms of oppression and the destruction of the environment!

A Few Chants For the Strike

• “Strike, Occupy, Shut it Down! Oakland is the People’s Town”
• “Every Hour, Every Day! The occupation is here to stay!”
• “Occupy Everything! Liberate Oakland”
• “Politicians & Bankers, Liars & Thieves, We’re taking it back! We’re not saying please!”
• “No more cops, we don’t need ‘em! All we want is total freedom”
• “Shut Down OPD! Not the Public Library!”
• “Let’s Go Oakland! Let’s Go!” [clap] [clap]

SEE YOU IN THE STREETS! MAKE OAKLAND PROUD!

Let’s make it safe and peaceful for all – Okay? 

AH: As someone once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, people do”.

Play it peaceful wherever you are. xoxo

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

Kusma: Like I said earlier, I wish I had something better to write. I HOPE you and yours are well.

Sarah: What happens when that day will come, I’m not sure. But according to Pat Buchanan his day of doom will be 2041, where he claims will be the “end of white America”…whites being, as Buchanan claims in his new book, an “endangered species”. Here’s the write:

Pat Buchanan’s Gloomy Warning About ‘The End Of White America’ 

Pat Buchanan made a series of charged remarks about the racial makeup of the U.S. during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Monday show.

Buchanan was talking about his new book, “Suicide Of A Superpower.” One of the chapters is entitled “The End Of White America.” Hannity said that Buchanan labels white Americans as an “endangered species” in the book. He asked Buchanan to respond to what was sure to be a controversy about the chapter, since Buchanan is never anything less than a lightning rod for his racial views.

“Are you against minorities?” Hannity asked. “Not at all,” Buchanan said. He said that the chapter was merely an attempt to examine what he thought would happen when whites no longer formed a majority of the American population.

“America is going to look very much like California right now,” Buchanan said, going on to paint a very gloomy picture of the state (bankruptcy, a “black-brown war among the underclass,” and so on), and claiming that, in Los Angeles, “half the people there don’t speak English in their own homes.”

Buchanan said that the people of color in California “are not bad or evil people,” but that they are bankrupting the state. He concluded, “What happens when all of America is like that, when every American city is like LA? …What California is today, America is in 2041 if we don’t change course.”

Buchanan then went on to discuss the voting patterns of various racial groups in the U.S. Noting that African Americans and Latinos vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, he predicted that the Republicans faced a dire future thanks to the current demographic trends. Buchanan seemed to think this was not a very good thing.

Buchanan, of course, is no stranger to controversy. Most recently, he drew fire for saying that African Americans were living on a “liberal plantation.”

Click here to watch the video.

*********

Lisa: Thank you. Not sure how many “Brassy Moments” I have been dishing out lately, but when a moment that moves me arrives, the inspiration drives me.

Bina: How hard it must’ve been for you and your family not knowing where your brothers were all of these years. I HOPE that you don’t give up. I wish you and yours the best and may you find each other soon.

Al: Hey there. I am well thank you.  I have no reason to complain, but I still do. :)  How you?

I have no idea if what is happening in South Dakota is happening in South Florida, but my guess is yes, since so many states are not following the Indian Child Welfare Act.  It seems to me that this particular subject has really gotten you concerned. As well it should. I’m not sure what you can do to help, but if you are inspired to do something, I would check it out. How amazing it would be to help someone like Bina, find their siblings.

Howie: Thanks so much for posting such an important topic on this radical amendment. The passing of Initiative 26 in Mississippe would be devastating for women, and a huge step backwards in women’s reproductive rights.

Readers: If you live in Mississippi, don’t stay home – get out the word- VOTE “NO” ON 26 on November 8th. Everyone else, pass it forward. Sign the pledge to vote No on 26. We don’t want this initiative to pass in Mississippi, Florida or any other state.

Here’s Rachel Maddow talking on this issue a few days ago:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hcan: ”Occupy The Kochs” – Love it. Wish I was gonna be in D.C.

Queen of the Dark: Cute.

Peace out.

Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

The last of this series:

Native Survivors Of Foster Care Return Home

When Dwayne Stenstrom was 8 years old a state worker told him that he and his brother were going to a special camp for the summer. Instead, he spent 12 years in foster care.

Dwayne Stenstrom is a professor of American history. His office is lined with towers of obscure books and poetry on the walls. There’s even a copy of the Declaration of Independence in a binder.

In South Dakota, Children’s Home Society cares for hundreds of Native American children.

He teaches this document like many other professors, beginning with, “We hold these truths to be self evident.” But he stops on another phrase — “the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages.”

“What [is] significant to me,” Stenstrom says, “is the impact that it has on a lot of our Native American kids when it still regards Indians as merciless Indian savages.”

Stenstrom teaches at Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He grew up in a white foster care home, married his wife 31 years ago and raised six children. He’s as passionate about history as he is his community.

Most social services departments would look at him and say he’s a success story.

“The problem,” Stenstrom says, “is that that’s a fallacy.”

He says he didn’t make a life for himself “until I came back to the reservation.”

Losing Native Traditions

The Indian Child Welfare Act says that except in the rarest of cases, Native American children who have to be removed from their homes must be placed with relatives, their tribes or other Native Americans. Yet 32 states are failing in some way to abide by the law, according to 2005 government audit. These children are also more likely to end up in foster care than other races, even in similar circumstances, according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association.

John Poole/Courtesy of Dwayne Stenstrom, Dwayne Stenstrom, in the striped shirt, is shown in a family photo as a young boy. He is pictured with one of his brothers who went to Vietnam and another brother who was also placed in foster care.

The result is generations of children growing up without a connection to their culture, traditions and tribes — as Stenstrom did.

He grew up on the Nebraska plains, on the Winnebago Reservation. He and his brother spent the summers outside on the prairie with their grandfather.

But when he was 8 years old, in the spring of 1968, a van pulled up outside his house. The driver, a woman, told him he and his brother were going away for the summer. Stenstrom recalls his grandfather looking worried.

“He told me never to forget where I come from and to embrace it,” Stenstrom remembers.

That was the last time he saw him.

Stenstrom spent the summer in several foster homes. One day the van took him to Ainsworth, Neb., to a house where an older couple lived. Their own children were grown and no longer living at home. There, he and his brother waited for fall so they could go home.

“I’m thinking when the summer’s over, the little van [is] going to come and get me,” Stenstrom says. “It still hasn’t come and got me. I’m still sitting there emotionally waiting for the little van to come. And I don’t expect it’s coming.”

Years later, he was told by a state worker that his mother drank too much. But he doesn’t recall any bad memories. He knows she loved him. When he closed his eyes, he could see it in her face.

He says he doesn’t understand why he wasn’t sent to live with one of his relatives. He had hundreds of them. Instead he was sent to a white foster home.

“I grew up in a teepee, for Pete’s sake,” he says. “This isn’t a cliche. Go to bed in a circular teepee tonight and wake up tomorrow morning with four walls. And when you open your eyes, you don’t recognize anybody in the room. And sit there for 12 years. Because that’s what I did.”

Sometimes he dreamed about Native American ceremonies. But when he woke up, the details were gone. For a while, he hoped his two older brothers would come get him. But they had both been drafted and sent to Vietnam.

“I’m sitting here feeling sorry for me because I lost my mom,” he says. “Imagine what she went through.”

Stenstrom liked his foster parents. He says they treated him well, but he does not refer to them as his own mother or father.

“I learned to appreciate that family,” he says. “I stayed with them until both of them passed away. When the mother passed, I went back to her funeral and one of her kids asked, ‘Why’s he here?’ “

After that, something snapped. And like more than half of children who leave foster care, he got in trouble with the law and drank too much.

“The only thing I had going for me was my memory,” he says. “I looked in four directions and there was nobody.”

That’s when he returned to the reservation, he says, to see what he had missed and find his identity. He says it saved him.

Finding Tiospaye

On the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota, former foster care children walk into Juanita Sherick’s office every week. They want to be saved too. Sherick knows the feeling. She was taken from her parents when she was 9.

“A lot of times it’s real painful for me to think about it because my brother and I went through a lot,” she says. “I have never forgotten it. I think that’s why I work so hard in this job.”

Sherick is now the tribe’s social worker. The most difficult mornings are when young children are waiting at her door. They’re runaways from foster care.

Asked what she does with them, she says: “I don’t give them back to the state of South Dakota, that’s for damn sure.”

That feeling is common on South Dakota’s reservations. Officials from three separate tribes said they are actively hiding children from state caseworkers.

Sherick says she finds a relative to take them in — something she says the state should have done in the first place.

“They are so happy to see Grandma,” she says. “They just cry. It makes you cry. Those are the times it’s all worth it.”

After Stenstrom found his way home, he says he connected with the spirit of his grandfather and made peace with the years he spent in foster care. Eventually he even found his mother. She told him she had searched for him for years. He spent six months with her before she died of cancer.

“That was my mom,” he says. “That meant the world to me.”

‘They’ll Always Come Home’

Not too long ago a boy, about 6 years old, found his way to the pay phone at the minimart on the Cheyenne River reservation.

“He ran away from a foster home in Lemmon,” says Diane Garreau, the tribe’s social worker. “He was looking through the phone book because he had remembered names of his family.

“They try to come home,” she says. “They’ll always come home.They should have never left here.”

Garreau and dozens of other tribal officials say the only difference between running away and running home is whether or not you’re running in the direction you belong.

*********

Readers: These stories make my heart heavy. I can’t imagine what it must be like for these children to be taken away from their families…their tribes and brought to place to grow up in a life so foreign, so vastly different from what they once knew. These are just small children, thrown into a life with no culture to lean on, no traditions to remind them, no family to love them. No wonder so many of these children grow up feeling lost, break the laws and turn to alcohol. I can not believe that this is happening and continues to happen.

I am reposting the key findings because I find this to be horrific.

Key Findings Of This Investigation

If this is heartbreaking to you..if this pulls at your heart, I HOPE that it inspires you to do something. These are children that have every right to live a wonderful life with their biological families…to grow up knowing and experiencing life the way they were supposed to. I can’t tell you how disturbed I am reading this series, knowing that our country is supporting this horrific abuse to the native peoples of our country.

If you live in South Dakota, or really anywhere, and are reading this, I HOPE that you have learned something today that has horrified you and that you will make it known that you are not going to ignore this issue anymore…that you are going to help stop this before it is too late for these children. I have said before, that in light of all of our busy lives, find something that you are passionate about and spend an hour a week doing something to support that passion…something that helps others lives become better. I HOPE this is the thing that moves you.

Preeti: You’re welcome. I wish that I was posting better news. I wish the best for you and yours.

Social Butterfly: Love this idea.

Doug: This is appalling. It just shows us how little compassion people have for others when they are down. This behavior is really sickening, and those who participated should be fired.

Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Tribes Question Foster Group’s Power And Influence

Children at the Black Hills campus of the Children’s Home Society head into the main building for lunch. The home caters to children with special needs, many of whom are Native American.

On a small crest deep in South Dakota’s Black Hills, a dozen children jumped on sleds and floated across the snow. They are wards of the state, and this is their home: the western campus of the Children’s Home Society.

There are rolling hills, a babbling brook — even a new school.

Children’s Home Director Bill Colson says it’s a place to help children who can’t make it in regular foster homes.

“We want to solve the problems, and sometimes it just seems like you’re beating your head against the wall,” he says. “But the reality is we are making progress, and I feel great about it, and our agency feels good about it.”

State officials say Children’s Home and other organizations like it are necessary. But Native American tribes say their children don’t need to be there. Instead, they should be placed with their relatives or tribal members.

Federal law agrees. In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, to halt a century-long practice of forcing Native American children into boarding schools. It says that except in the most extreme circumstances, children must be placed with family or tribal members if they have to be removed from their homes.

But a 2005 government report found 32 states are failing to abide by the law in one way or another. And an NPR news investigation has found that in South Dakota, 90 percent of Native American children in foster care are placed in non-native homes or privately run group homes. It’s a generation of children once again being taken from their native traditions and culture.

At Children’s Home, which is the largest private foster care provider in the state, Colson says he’s heard the tribe’s complaints. But he says the organization’s priority is to return Native American kids to their families.

“Our goal is to have kids be in a family and be successful,” he says.

With multiple campuses and emergency centers, Children’s Home provides services for up to 2,000 children a year. It’s now one of the largest nonprofits in the state. But it wasn’t always.

The Turnaround

Ten years ago, this group was in financial trouble. For several years, tax records show, it was losing money. Then in 2002, a former banker named Dennis Daugaard joined the team. He became the group’s chief operating officer. A year later, he was promoted to executive director. And things began to change.

Nati Harnik/APSouth Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, seen here at a news conference in October, spent seven years in leadership positions at Children’s Home Society before becoming the state’s governor.

The money the group was getting from the state doubled under his leadership. Children’s Home grew financially to seven times its size. It added two new facilities.

State records show it seized on a big opportunity. The state began outsourcing much of its work, such as training foster care parents and examining potential foster homes. Children’s Home got almost every one of those contracts.

The group paid Daugaard $115,000 a year. But that wasn’t his only job. He was also the state’s lieutenant governor — and a rising star in state politics.

The seven years Daugaard spent at Children’s Home — and his ability to turn the place around — were prominent features of his successful 2010 bid for governor.

Competition-Free Contracts

It could be that Children’s Home was the best organization for the job, at the best price for all those contracts it got.

But it would be difficult for tax payers to know. In just about every case, the group did not compete for the contracts or bid against any other organization. For almost seven years, until this year, Daugaard’s colleagues in state government just chose the organization and sent it money — more than $50 million in all.

“It’s a massive conflict of interest,” says Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, adding that any organization run by a state’s top elected official would have undue power in that state.

“When you’re lieutenant governor, people are anxious to curry favor with you,” she says.

Daugaard declined NPR’s repeated requests for an interview. In a statement, his office said Children’s Home was the only viable organization that could have done the work, and that Daugaard never used his influence as lieutenant governor to secure contracts for the organization.

Tribal leaders, though, say the unusual relationship provides a window into the role money and politics play in South Dakota’s foster care system. They say the dominance of Children’s Home in this area is but one example of the interests of the state trumping the interests of native children.

“They make a living off of our children,” says Juanita Sherick, the tribal social worker on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation.

She says the state pushes aggressively in her cases to place kids in Children’s Home who, she says, should be placed with their grandmothers, aunts and uncles — family members who are often desperate to take them in.

“Give the children back to their relatives, because the creator gave those children to those families,” Sherick says. “Who has any right to take them away from those families?”

Tribes Want Alternatives

In recent years, critics say Children’s Home has become a virtual powerhouse. It not only examines all the potential foster families and homes, it houses the most children. It trains the state’s case workers and holds all of the state’s training classes for foster parents. It does all of the state’s examinations of children who may have been abused.

For all of this work, Children’s Home is paid tens of millions of dollars every year.

On the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, tribal social worker Rose Mendoza finds that ridiculous. Children’s Home got the state’s only contract to examine potential foster homes, called kinship home studies, even on the reservations.

Laura Sullivan/NPRChildren’s artwork lines the halls of the Children’s Home Society in South Dakota. Officials there say they try to keep Native American kids connected to their culture.

“Why send a private agency onto our reservation?” she said. “[Children's Home] is not calling us to request permission to come onto the reservation to do these home studies.”

Mendoza says her agency would do the work for free. They know the families, they know the homes.

In a state where the majority of foster children are native, Mendoza and many of their tribal officials say home studies, social worker training and family placements should be done by people who know and understand the children’s culture.

“Everybody says cultural differences,” Mendoza said. “But it’s really understanding what that means. It’s a way of life. Our way of life is different.”

Tribes weren’t the only ones left out. Troy Hoppes ran a group similar to Children’s Home named Canyon Hills Center. He says he didn’t know about many of the contracts until after they were given to Children’s Home.

“I just remember in the news there [were] some grants that were awarded, and obviously I was envious,” he says. “We wanted to get some grants for ourselves, as well.”

Hoppes says his organization would have jumped at the chance to take on the additional work.

“Facilities love the opportunity to branch out with things like that and give their staff opportunities to advance their skills,” he says.

Gov. Daugaard’s Response

In its statement, Daugaard’s office said that any group home that has a license to care for children can be placed on the state providers’ list and given children.

But Hoppes says that they were on this list, yet the home struggled to fill its beds. At the same time, Children’s Home had a waiting list.

In his statement, Daugaard also emphasizes that the job of lieutenant governor was part time, and that he never supervised any of the people who approved the government contracts. State social services officials in their statement said Children’s Home was never treated any differently from other organizations.

Children’s Home has won many state accolades for its work with children. But that doesn’t mean much to Suzanne Crow or her granddaughter Brianna, who spent three years there.

When Crow was a child, she was also taken from her family. She was sent to a boarding school.

“Every night me and my sister would meet at her bed and would say, ‘Let’s run away tomorrow,’ ” Crow remembers. “We used to make all our plans just to comfort ourselves that we’re still there. This foster care system reminds me of that.”

She didn’t want Brianna to grow up like she did, not knowing who she was, not knowing that someone in the world loved her. It took a court order for the state to send Brianna home to her stepfather.

“I didn’t care what it took,” Crow says. “I battled with them.”

State records show South Dakota paid Children’s Home almost $50,000 over three years to care for Brianna.

But across the state, grandmothers, aunts and uncles, family and tribal members would have cared for Brianna — and hundreds of other Native American children like her. They would have done so for free, keeping them close to their tribes and culture like federal law intended.

*********

Readers: As you know this is just horrific. When will this kidnapping end for these peoples? I only HOPE this will come to an end before these peoples have reached their end.

Doug: Yes a “civilized society” has done wonders for the Native American Indians. You can see how pleased they are with the outcome of their lives…their tribes.

Wilma: Yeah. Exactly.  But as you can see, money is being sent, aid is being given, but the children are being used, separated from the families to get it. It is a sick story.

Al: You guessed it right. As you can see from the article I posted today, these children do have a high resale value.  Did I already say this was sick? I’ll say it again, “What is happening to the Native American Indian families is sick”.

How convenient that the ex-banker Dennis Daugaard, also holding a leadership position at Children’s Home Society  is the republican Governor of South Dakota, bringing in the big bucks to this foster home, all at the expense of these children. Time to get this man ousted.

Stay tuned for Part III

Peace & Love...and do something today strictly for someone else.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

“ Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox“