Of Sluts and Bastards: A Feminist Decodes the Child Welfare Debate

I am a major fan of Louise Armstrong. Author of "Kiss Daddy Goodnight," and "Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics," Armstrong is a seeker of Truth and will stop at nothing to dis-cover what it is that puts America's children at risk and keeps them there. It is more than professionals and volunteers who can identify with what Armstrong has to say. Those who have partaken of the system can easily identify themselves in the pages that tell one story after another of lies, secrets and betrayal by a system that supposedly exists to rescue and protect our most vulnerable citizens. While Armstrong sees a system flailing in the wind of incompetence and confusion, I see more. In a system where no one is held accountable, where those who are targeted with "services," that are nothing more than "punishment" defined as "treatment," the Nazification of the social service system has created an open door to those who thrive on the exploitation of children for profit. If you don't believe it, read the other books I have reviewed. The truth will begin to reveal itself to you, too.

Louise Armstrong has exposed the dark underside of Child Welfare in this country. This is not a "feminist" book in any narrow definition of that term; rather this is a book for any American who believes our children deserve our best. Armstrong details nothing less than an evil conspiracy. Federal mechanisms for funding, the courts and state bureaucrats have conspired to make the public believe that the nation's most tragic victims - abused children - are in good hands. Then the three branches of government then play the parts of those legendary monkeys - see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil.The concerned volunteer or interested citizen will be appalled at the stories Armstrong tells. They are heartbreaking stories that ring all too true for those of us who have worked or volunteered in the child welfare field. Those who are looking for an easy scapegoat, however, will be disappointed. The child welfare system in this nation is accountable to no one, and even though some of our nation's heroes work here every day, many - perhaps most - of the children are poorly served, even harmed. Here is a system where no one keeps account of the most basic data - how many children, how many placements made, etc. - where secrets are every where and those in charge seem somehow unwilling or unable to make the changes necessary. Here the poorest women have their children taken away by a system seemingly without either a heart or a mind. For there is no caring and no logic to the punishment of both mother and child whose crimes are simply being born poor in the world's richest nation. This isn't a book of answers, but it asks all the right questions. Read it, and then give it to a legislator.