Friday, August 24, 2012
HATEFUL MESSAGES ADD TO SORROW
HATEFUL MESSAGES ADD TO SORROW
Three children die - and some readers' depraved responses to the tragedy create an evil all their own
by ANDREW MALEKOFF* (originally published on March 3, 2008)
I made a disturbing discovery the Sunday afternoon of Feb. 24 when the murder of three innocent children, the youngest named Innocent, allegedly at the hands of their profoundly troubled mother, was first
reported on Newsday's Web site. Few details were available at the time.
The headline on the Web site read: "Sources: Mom Kills Three Kids in New Cassel." My stomach dropped. I couldn't recall a story quite like this since I moved to Long Island in the late 1970s.
When I scrolled to the end of the story, there was a place to click to "Read all 40 comments." This link, which appears in many online stories in Newsday and other newspapers, takes you to a "Forum," a place for the public to comment.
I clicked into the forum, and amid readers' expressions of shock, dismay, sadness and sympathy, I found a significant stream of depravity. The forum, for the most part, consists of anonymous writers who tag their reflections with a range of nicknames. Here is a sample, exactly as the notes appeared:
Typical wrote: "The savages at it again ... "
The Pusher wrote: "New Cassel should be nuked."
Shoot Me Twice wrote: "The kids didn't put on a convincing performance at the Department of Social Services for mommy to get more free goodies. Maybe Tom Suozzi can use them as extra help at his mansion on the North Shore."
Senseless wrote: "Where O Where could my Daddy be? In jail most probably . . . planning to get out and commit the next robbery."
Booker wrote: ". . . These are unstable people with weak genes, she did society a favor. Animals kill their young when they know they are too weak to make a go of it, why are we so different?"
Comments like these continued throughout the week. On Feb. 27 someone identifying himself as Bruce wrote of the murdered children: "three less drains on society. good riddance."
Sprinkled in were a number of counter-responses like this one by Disgusted, I am sickened by this sad story and sickened again by all of these disgusting comments ... it's really pathetic that some of you have nothing to do but spew hatred."
Sometimes one response would specifically engage another. Right after the children's funerals, I found: Tookie (Huntington Station): "da lil nappi headed **** are in heaven now!"
To which SadSadness AOL responded: ". . . heartless cold person, 3 innocent children were killed regardless of race. If your not feeling sad over this your an evil person. those children did nothing wrong and def did not deserve that, May they Rest in peace respectfully."
It's one of the great benefits of the Internet to offer instant access to news, along with a chance for the audience to instantly share comments about it. But in this situation, even with certain incendiary remarks slapped right down, this seemed like a mixed blessing.
Newsday, like many media sites, has guidelines to try to keep the online conversation civil and constructive. Yet, after reading messages on the murder of three small children, I am discovering feelings of sorrow that I did not think I would ever experience for the mother who is alleged to have carried out the horror of all horrors, killing her own. Strangely, and I am sure unforgivably to some, I find myself feeling more of a human connection to Leatrice Brewer than to Typical, The Pusher, Booker, Shoot Me Twice, Senseless and their gang.
*Andrew Malekoff is executive director of the North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.
Newsday link to article: http://www.newsday.com/opinion/hateful-messages-add-to-sorrow-1.597624
Sunday, August 5, 2012
SAVE OUR SERVICES
SAVE OUR SERVICES
The Olympic games in London have inspired us with the fetes of 15-year-old swimming sensation Katie Ledecky and the diminutive dynamo of gymnastics, 17-year-old Gaby Douglas. At the same time, in Nassau County, there is a game of political cat-and-mouse being played by our elected officials who have put tens of thousands of vulnerable young people in the legislative crosshairs.
The July 6th funding cuts to essential human services provide a chilling insight into the insidious nature of Nassau County politics. The Democratic minority on the Nassau County Legislature chose not to authorize $41 million in borrowing for tax refunds. Republicans claim that the democrats are withholding their votes as a ploy to get new election districts redrawn. Democrats state that the funding cut is a policy decision by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
In an attempt to draw wider attention about the impact of the budget cuts, STRONG Youth, Inc., a gang-prevention program in Hempstead that lost all of its county funding, staged a symbolic funeral for youth services at the Hempstead Pentecostal Church on August 2nd. I attended the funeral and participated in the processional motorcade led by two hearses that traveled past the legislative building in Mineola and concluded in a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court.
Some critics accused STRONG of being too extreme. Others called the symbolic funeral disrespectful of the dead. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The funeral, procession and press conference were impeccably organized in less than a week by STRONG social workers and volunteers, young and old, who galvanized a complex network of children, teenagers, parents (including parents of murdered children), crime victims, clergy, colleagues, community leaders and local businesses.
The only thing extreme about the “funeral” was in the exceptional orchestration and staging of an event aimed at exposing the gap between what we know and what we are told by government officials. The skills used to organize this event are the same ones that are used by professional social workers to develop and implement an exemplary gang prevention program that aims to engage young people to become successful students and active citizens in community affairs. Nassau County should not be eliminating programs like STRONG, they should be celebrating and promoting it as a best practice in gang prevention.
One of the speakers at the press conference was a young woman, Amory Sepúlveda, who testified, “When I was 19-years-old I was the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting that resulted in [my] never being able to walk again. I was hurt physically, emotionally and thought my life was over. With the help of county youth services I am now a college graduate in pursuit of a master’s degree [in social work]. I’ve shared my story, changing the lives of thousands of youth in Nassau County.”
The shame of Nassau County and its loss of humanity are evident in our elected representatives’ failure to value, respect, uplift, defend and safeguard all of the County's children when having the power to do so. Our elected officials have demonstrated, notwithstanding their ever-present availability for photo ops designed to depict a contrary impression, that they have little respect for our most vulnerable citizens.
When our elected representatives implement politically-motivated cost cutting they miss the human toll and they miss the fiscal consequences of their decisions. Our elected representatives miss that they are cutting cost-effective services that keep people out of jail, emergency rooms and costly psychiatric institutions.
During harsh economic times when all of our best efforts are needed to preserve families and save lives, the recent cuts to human services will not only destroy families but increase the long term burden to the taxpayer. And, it will bear an even greater cost in lives lost, kids plucked from their homes and families splintered and destroyed.
Andrew Malekoff, Long Beach
The author is executive director of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.
The Olympic games in London have inspired us with the fetes of 15-year-old swimming sensation Katie Ledecky and the diminutive dynamo of gymnastics, 17-year-old Gaby Douglas. At the same time, in Nassau County, there is a game of political cat-and-mouse being played by our elected officials who have put tens of thousands of vulnerable young people in the legislative crosshairs.
The July 6th funding cuts to essential human services provide a chilling insight into the insidious nature of Nassau County politics. The Democratic minority on the Nassau County Legislature chose not to authorize $41 million in borrowing for tax refunds. Republicans claim that the democrats are withholding their votes as a ploy to get new election districts redrawn. Democrats state that the funding cut is a policy decision by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
In an attempt to draw wider attention about the impact of the budget cuts, STRONG Youth, Inc., a gang-prevention program in Hempstead that lost all of its county funding, staged a symbolic funeral for youth services at the Hempstead Pentecostal Church on August 2nd. I attended the funeral and participated in the processional motorcade led by two hearses that traveled past the legislative building in Mineola and concluded in a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court.
Some critics accused STRONG of being too extreme. Others called the symbolic funeral disrespectful of the dead. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The funeral, procession and press conference were impeccably organized in less than a week by STRONG social workers and volunteers, young and old, who galvanized a complex network of children, teenagers, parents (including parents of murdered children), crime victims, clergy, colleagues, community leaders and local businesses.
The only thing extreme about the “funeral” was in the exceptional orchestration and staging of an event aimed at exposing the gap between what we know and what we are told by government officials. The skills used to organize this event are the same ones that are used by professional social workers to develop and implement an exemplary gang prevention program that aims to engage young people to become successful students and active citizens in community affairs. Nassau County should not be eliminating programs like STRONG, they should be celebrating and promoting it as a best practice in gang prevention.
One of the speakers at the press conference was a young woman, Amory Sepúlveda, who testified, “When I was 19-years-old I was the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting that resulted in [my] never being able to walk again. I was hurt physically, emotionally and thought my life was over. With the help of county youth services I am now a college graduate in pursuit of a master’s degree [in social work]. I’ve shared my story, changing the lives of thousands of youth in Nassau County.”
The shame of Nassau County and its loss of humanity are evident in our elected representatives’ failure to value, respect, uplift, defend and safeguard all of the County's children when having the power to do so. Our elected officials have demonstrated, notwithstanding their ever-present availability for photo ops designed to depict a contrary impression, that they have little respect for our most vulnerable citizens.
When our elected representatives implement politically-motivated cost cutting they miss the human toll and they miss the fiscal consequences of their decisions. Our elected representatives miss that they are cutting cost-effective services that keep people out of jail, emergency rooms and costly psychiatric institutions.
During harsh economic times when all of our best efforts are needed to preserve families and save lives, the recent cuts to human services will not only destroy families but increase the long term burden to the taxpayer. And, it will bear an even greater cost in lives lost, kids plucked from their homes and families splintered and destroyed.
Andrew Malekoff, Long Beach
The author is executive director of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Andrew Malekoff
Submitted to Long Island Newsday on July 16, 2012
The recent spate of politically-motivated funding cuts to essential human services and the ritual recruitment of our neediest citizens as unpaid lobbyists offers a chilling insight into how far Nassau County leadership has fallen.
The Democratic minority on the Nassau County Legislature voted four times against authorizing $41 million in borrowing for tax refunds. Republicans claimed that the Democrats are using their voting leverage to get new election districts redrawn. Democrats asserted that the cuts represented a policy decision by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
In 2009, then-County Executive Tom Suozzi, whose motto for human services was "No Wrong Door," cut funding from 43 agencies serving over 60,000 people. In so doing, he "enlisted" the county's most vulnerable citizens to become his unpaid lobbyists to advocate for red-light cameras, cigarette taxes and traffic violation reform.
Red-light camera legislation was approved in Albany and local agencies were given bi-partisan assurance of restored and sustainable funding. That “reserved” fund was taken off the table by County Executive Ed Mangano as a consequence of the county legislature’s failure to pass the bonding.
When our elected representatives implement politically-motivated cost cutting they demonstrate a loss of empathy. What’s worse, is that they lose all reason. They miss the human toll and they miss the fiscal consequences of their decisions. They are relegated to finger-pointing, tantruming two-year olds hell-bent on getting what they want at any cost.
Our elected representatives miss that they are cutting cost-effective services that keep people out of jail, emergency rooms and costly addictions and mental health institutions. They discount the lives that will be saved by preventing suicide and drug overdoses. They ignore the human and fiscal benefits that quality services bring in effectively addressing homelessness, hunger, runaways, gangs, unemployment, family crises, eating disorders, sexual abuse, teen pregnancy and much more.
Our elected officials have demonstrated, notwithstanding their ever-present availability for photo ops designed to depict a contrary impression, that they have little respect for our most vulnerable citizens. Too harsh an assessment? Let’s face it, behavior talks.
Our services are referred to as “discretionary,” connoting that they are dispensable; which, we have learned, they surely are. We are reminded of this on a regular basis when our funds are slashed and our people are taken hostage to lobby for bonding or red-light cameras and, I am sure, in time, for gambling.
Moody’s Investors Service offers an opinion about the county’s general creditworthiness, or expected loss. I wonder how Nassau County would stack up if there was Moody’s Vulnerable Citizens Service that judged how we treat our most at-risk teenagers or seniors.
During harsh economic times when all of our best efforts are needed to preserve families, the recent cuts to human services will increase the long term burden to the taxpayer. And, it will bear an even greater cost in lives lost, kids plucked from their homes and families splintered and destroyed.
It is time for the people who we elected to represent us to get real.
Andrew Malekoff
Mr. Malekoff is executive director and chief executive for North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights, New York
Andrew Malekoff
Submitted to Long Island Newsday on July 16, 2012
The recent spate of politically-motivated funding cuts to essential human services and the ritual recruitment of our neediest citizens as unpaid lobbyists offers a chilling insight into how far Nassau County leadership has fallen.
The Democratic minority on the Nassau County Legislature voted four times against authorizing $41 million in borrowing for tax refunds. Republicans claimed that the Democrats are using their voting leverage to get new election districts redrawn. Democrats asserted that the cuts represented a policy decision by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
In 2009, then-County Executive Tom Suozzi, whose motto for human services was "No Wrong Door," cut funding from 43 agencies serving over 60,000 people. In so doing, he "enlisted" the county's most vulnerable citizens to become his unpaid lobbyists to advocate for red-light cameras, cigarette taxes and traffic violation reform.
Red-light camera legislation was approved in Albany and local agencies were given bi-partisan assurance of restored and sustainable funding. That “reserved” fund was taken off the table by County Executive Ed Mangano as a consequence of the county legislature’s failure to pass the bonding.
When our elected representatives implement politically-motivated cost cutting they demonstrate a loss of empathy. What’s worse, is that they lose all reason. They miss the human toll and they miss the fiscal consequences of their decisions. They are relegated to finger-pointing, tantruming two-year olds hell-bent on getting what they want at any cost.
Our elected representatives miss that they are cutting cost-effective services that keep people out of jail, emergency rooms and costly addictions and mental health institutions. They discount the lives that will be saved by preventing suicide and drug overdoses. They ignore the human and fiscal benefits that quality services bring in effectively addressing homelessness, hunger, runaways, gangs, unemployment, family crises, eating disorders, sexual abuse, teen pregnancy and much more.
Our elected officials have demonstrated, notwithstanding their ever-present availability for photo ops designed to depict a contrary impression, that they have little respect for our most vulnerable citizens. Too harsh an assessment? Let’s face it, behavior talks.
Our services are referred to as “discretionary,” connoting that they are dispensable; which, we have learned, they surely are. We are reminded of this on a regular basis when our funds are slashed and our people are taken hostage to lobby for bonding or red-light cameras and, I am sure, in time, for gambling.
Moody’s Investors Service offers an opinion about the county’s general creditworthiness, or expected loss. I wonder how Nassau County would stack up if there was Moody’s Vulnerable Citizens Service that judged how we treat our most at-risk teenagers or seniors.
During harsh economic times when all of our best efforts are needed to preserve families, the recent cuts to human services will increase the long term burden to the taxpayer. And, it will bear an even greater cost in lives lost, kids plucked from their homes and families splintered and destroyed.
It is time for the people who we elected to represent us to get real.
Andrew Malekoff
Mr. Malekoff is executive director and chief executive for North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights, New York
Thursday, June 7, 2012
When Parents Drink and Drug
Anton Community Newspapers •
132 East 2nd StreetMineola , NY 11501
132 East 2nd Street
When Parents Drink and Drug
by Andrew Malekoff © advance proof June 2012
The problematic use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco is unquestionably the nation’s number one health problem. While all segments of society are affected, the future of young people is most severely compromised by this epidemic.
There has been increased media exposure and public education on the rise of young people’s abuse of pharmaceuticals – prescription drugs – that often leads to heroin use and addiction.
Parents have been alerted to the fact that the most likely source of prescription drugs is the medicine cabinets of friends and family, where the pharmaceuticals can be easily attained at no cost; and, that the cost for a bag of heroin is less than that for a six-pack of beer.
Despite enhanced media coverage on these drugs, what the public hardly hears about anymore is the fact that there are millions of children who grow up in homes with parents who are addicted to alcohol and other drugs.
It has been estimated that approximately one in four children in the US
Children who grow up in families with alcohol and drug addiction learn to distrust to survive. They learn how to walk on eggshells. The behavior and attitude of the addict and the related emotional tone in the home is a day-to-day mystery. When unpredictability dominates a child’s life, they are likely to be perpetually wary, always sensing disappointment or danger lurking nearby.
Children who grow up in addicted families become uncomfortably accustomed to living with chaos, uncertainty, unpredictability and inconsistency. These children have no idea what is normal. They live vastly different internal lives than their peers from homes where coping with addiction in the family is not a daily challenge.
Denial and secrecy are common for children who live in alcoholic or addicted families. Their lives are organized around concealing the truth. Asking for help is out of the question as that would trigger exposure to the outside world, disloyalty inside the family and it would evoke intense feelings of embarrassment and shame.
In an addicted family there is an ongoing and, most often, unspoken agreement to hide the problem to prevent exposure that will erode the image of a “perfect family.” Children may avoid bringing friends home and cringe at the thought of having the family secret revealed. Their own needs and desires take a back seat to fronting for their family and preserving the image that belies the reality.
It is hard to be a child in an alcoholic or addicted family. It takes a lot of energy just to get through the day. Growing up in such a family leaves children with little hope that things will ever change. Children who live in these homes often feel trapped, depressed, alone and desperate.
There are no simple answers, but there is help. Family members, friends, pediatricians and school personnel who are attuned to this problem can help to break the conspiracy of silence. Understanding the barriers, gently inviting trust and seeking professional support is the first step to overcome the problems involved. If you need guidance about how to proceed, call Tyrone Anthony , coordinator of chemical dependency services at the Leeds Place, a branch of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center
Andrew Malekoff is Executive Director, North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center, Roslyn Heights, New York 11577
amalekoff@northshorechildguidance.org
Andrew Malekoff is Executive Director, North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center, Roslyn Heights, New York 11577
amalekoff@northshorechildguidance.org
Friday, May 4, 2012
HUMAN SERVICES HUNGER GAMES
Human Services Hunger Games
by Andrew Malekoff © 2012
I am gradually losing step with the pop culture juggernaut. By the way, juggernaut refers to a relentless force, movement or object that trounces whatever is in its path. The term originated from the Unstoppable Juggernaut, a fictional character who first appeared in Marvel Comics’ X-Men. I share this only to establish that I do have some pop culture street- cred.
Nevertheless, I thought Hunger Games was an eating competition until I discovered that it was a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel written by Suzanne Collins. The book features 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen who volunteers to take her younger sister Prim’s place, after Prim is chosen by lottery to participate in a government-mandated, nationally-broadcast, fight-to-the-death battle among 24 teens and pre-teen “tributes” living in 12 districts of the nation of Panem. The goal of the games is to be the last one standing.
I read Hunger Games with a dual consciousness. I was absorbed in the fabulous and chilling story and I was tuned in to the story as a metaphor. The last-man-standing theme reminded me of the struggle for survival that community-based mental health agencies in Nassau County face. I have addressed this extensively in my published commentary and testimony before legislative bodies for years. For instance, in a 2009 piece that appeared in the Albany Times Union I wrote, “More low- and middle-income families than ever are in need of low-cost, high-quality community-based mental health care. Yet, the state Office of Mental Health, along with the state Health Department, is aggressively pursuing a "reform" plan that will assure continued access to care only to children and families with Medicaid fee-for-service insurance coverage. This will leave a significant number of children and adults in the lurch.”
Just to show that I wasn’t “blowing smoke,” if you fast-forward to 2012 you will find that there are community-based outpatient mental health providers in our backyard that closed their doors, were taken over by larger corporate entities with no community roots, transformed their operations into per diem factories with little capacity for dealing with complex or crisis situations or restricted their clientele to a residual population of Medicaid-insurance carriers.
Others are working diligently to preserve the integrity, character and culture of non-restrictive, universal community-based care. When our children, and their families, face the worst of times they need a place to go that is easily accessible and available to respond to emergencies, offers a continuum of care and feels like home and not like a factory.
For many community-based mental health centers, from a family’s first contact to their last, the work requires collaboration, most of which is not fee-producing, with a variety of service providers. Hours are spent with school personnel, hospital-discharge staff, probation officers, preventive workers, case managers, family advocates and child-protective service workers, to name a few.
The children at highest risk need a continuum of outpatient-based triage and emergency services that allow for seamless, timely and successful discharges from hospital to community. Experience has shown that hospitals will often not discharge children to private practitioners. Families, particularly those with children who have serious emotional disturbances or are in psychiatric crisis, require more assistance than can be provided by private practitioners.
To continue to provide these vital services and keep children from needing higher and costlier levels of care, many local agencies have been making every effort to streamline service delivery while maintaining the best standards of care.
Although it is an uphill battle, it is a fight that we must continue and, hopefully, with a different outcome than the Hunger Games; one where we all remain standing and the character and culture of true community-based mental health centers remains strong.
Published on May 31, 2012 in the Anton News chain of 18 Long Island newpapers.
by Andrew Malekoff © 2012
I am gradually losing step with the pop culture juggernaut. By the way, juggernaut refers to a relentless force, movement or object that trounces whatever is in its path. The term originated from the Unstoppable Juggernaut, a fictional character who first appeared in Marvel Comics’ X-Men. I share this only to establish that I do have some pop culture street- cred.
Nevertheless, I thought Hunger Games was an eating competition until I discovered that it was a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel written by Suzanne Collins. The book features 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen who volunteers to take her younger sister Prim’s place, after Prim is chosen by lottery to participate in a government-mandated, nationally-broadcast, fight-to-the-death battle among 24 teens and pre-teen “tributes” living in 12 districts of the nation of Panem. The goal of the games is to be the last one standing.
I read Hunger Games with a dual consciousness. I was absorbed in the fabulous and chilling story and I was tuned in to the story as a metaphor. The last-man-standing theme reminded me of the struggle for survival that community-based mental health agencies in Nassau County face. I have addressed this extensively in my published commentary and testimony before legislative bodies for years. For instance, in a 2009 piece that appeared in the Albany Times Union I wrote, “More low- and middle-income families than ever are in need of low-cost, high-quality community-based mental health care. Yet, the state Office of Mental Health, along with the state Health Department, is aggressively pursuing a "reform" plan that will assure continued access to care only to children and families with Medicaid fee-for-service insurance coverage. This will leave a significant number of children and adults in the lurch.”
Just to show that I wasn’t “blowing smoke,” if you fast-forward to 2012 you will find that there are community-based outpatient mental health providers in our backyard that closed their doors, were taken over by larger corporate entities with no community roots, transformed their operations into per diem factories with little capacity for dealing with complex or crisis situations or restricted their clientele to a residual population of Medicaid-insurance carriers.
Others are working diligently to preserve the integrity, character and culture of non-restrictive, universal community-based care. When our children, and their families, face the worst of times they need a place to go that is easily accessible and available to respond to emergencies, offers a continuum of care and feels like home and not like a factory.
For many community-based mental health centers, from a family’s first contact to their last, the work requires collaboration, most of which is not fee-producing, with a variety of service providers. Hours are spent with school personnel, hospital-discharge staff, probation officers, preventive workers, case managers, family advocates and child-protective service workers, to name a few.
The children at highest risk need a continuum of outpatient-based triage and emergency services that allow for seamless, timely and successful discharges from hospital to community. Experience has shown that hospitals will often not discharge children to private practitioners. Families, particularly those with children who have serious emotional disturbances or are in psychiatric crisis, require more assistance than can be provided by private practitioners.
To continue to provide these vital services and keep children from needing higher and costlier levels of care, many local agencies have been making every effort to streamline service delivery while maintaining the best standards of care.
Although it is an uphill battle, it is a fight that we must continue and, hopefully, with a different outcome than the Hunger Games; one where we all remain standing and the character and culture of true community-based mental health centers remains strong.
Published on May 31, 2012 in the Anton News chain of 18 Long Island newpapers.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
A CINEMATIC TAKE ON BULLY CULTURE
A Cinematic Take On Bully Culture
By Andrew Malekoff, April 27, 2012
Like many film-goers I have my list of favorites. Some are hilarious (Airplane), some are gripping (Wages of Fear), some are masterpieces (Godfather) and some are timeless classics (Wizard of Oz). And, then there are those that are so haunting that I cannot seem to shake loose of them. The darkly disturbing 2009 Austrian-German film, The White Ribbon, is one of the more haunting ones. Filmed beautifully in black and white with subtitles,
The White Ribbon portrays the residents of a northern German village, dominated by a baron, sometime before World War I. Inhabitants of this village appear to be sliding down a slippery slope of moral depravity. Men in positions of power - a doctor and a clergyman, for example – routinely mistreat women and children. Among the most brutal scenes is one where the town’s widowed physician verbally degrades a kind woman who had faithfully served as his caretaker and mistress.
Although it is only suggested, a number of the older children appear to have perpetrated despicable acts. Crops are destroyed, animals are killed, adults are injured and children are abused, including a child with Down syndrome. We bring our own meanings to films and modify our interpretations as time passes. After I thought about The White Ribbon for a while, I came to the conclusion that it contained a strong message about the devastating consequences that a culture of bullying can bring about.
Sometime after viewing the film, I thought more deeply about the children living in that German village. I realized that they would soon become young adults during the rise of Hitler. These children lived in an incubator in which the cruelty that they experienced, they perpetrated against unsuspecting and helpless victims. Their circumstances were such that they appeared to have been unwittingly primed to perpetrate the atrocities that would come to characterize the Third Reich.
In his 2009 commentary on the White Ribbon, for the San Francisco Chronicle, film reviewer Mike Lasalle noted that the idea of the film was “that the parenting and education German children received in the early years of the 20th century made them morally susceptible to Nazism…No child is trained to become a martinet, and no one says anything about a master race. Rather, the kids, from their elders, get quiet lessons in moral absolutism, sternness, emotional violence and heartlessness.”
Seeing this film led me to wonder about the early years of the 21st century when bullying has become such a prominent thread in the fabric of our culture. And the Internet and all of its gadgets have become the tools with which people of all ages systematically degrade others. But tools are tools. A hammer can be used to build a house or to crush someone’s skull. The Internet and modern technology are not inherently evil, but are tools that can be utilized for evil ends.
Although I do not know the answers to some of the questions that The White Ribbon has posed to me; the film, coupled with an acute awareness of the times we live in, brought these disturbing questions to mind: Have our children become susceptible to something ominous that we cannot yet fathom? If so, what is driving them? And, what are the times we are living in a prequel for?
This column first appeared in the Anton News, a chain of 18 Long Island, NY newpapers.
By Andrew Malekoff, April 27, 2012
Like many film-goers I have my list of favorites. Some are hilarious (Airplane), some are gripping (Wages of Fear), some are masterpieces (Godfather) and some are timeless classics (Wizard of Oz). And, then there are those that are so haunting that I cannot seem to shake loose of them. The darkly disturbing 2009 Austrian-German film, The White Ribbon, is one of the more haunting ones. Filmed beautifully in black and white with subtitles,
The White Ribbon portrays the residents of a northern German village, dominated by a baron, sometime before World War I. Inhabitants of this village appear to be sliding down a slippery slope of moral depravity. Men in positions of power - a doctor and a clergyman, for example – routinely mistreat women and children. Among the most brutal scenes is one where the town’s widowed physician verbally degrades a kind woman who had faithfully served as his caretaker and mistress.
Although it is only suggested, a number of the older children appear to have perpetrated despicable acts. Crops are destroyed, animals are killed, adults are injured and children are abused, including a child with Down syndrome. We bring our own meanings to films and modify our interpretations as time passes. After I thought about The White Ribbon for a while, I came to the conclusion that it contained a strong message about the devastating consequences that a culture of bullying can bring about.
Sometime after viewing the film, I thought more deeply about the children living in that German village. I realized that they would soon become young adults during the rise of Hitler. These children lived in an incubator in which the cruelty that they experienced, they perpetrated against unsuspecting and helpless victims. Their circumstances were such that they appeared to have been unwittingly primed to perpetrate the atrocities that would come to characterize the Third Reich.
In his 2009 commentary on the White Ribbon, for the San Francisco Chronicle, film reviewer Mike Lasalle noted that the idea of the film was “that the parenting and education German children received in the early years of the 20th century made them morally susceptible to Nazism…No child is trained to become a martinet, and no one says anything about a master race. Rather, the kids, from their elders, get quiet lessons in moral absolutism, sternness, emotional violence and heartlessness.”
Seeing this film led me to wonder about the early years of the 21st century when bullying has become such a prominent thread in the fabric of our culture. And the Internet and all of its gadgets have become the tools with which people of all ages systematically degrade others. But tools are tools. A hammer can be used to build a house or to crush someone’s skull. The Internet and modern technology are not inherently evil, but are tools that can be utilized for evil ends.
Although I do not know the answers to some of the questions that The White Ribbon has posed to me; the film, coupled with an acute awareness of the times we live in, brought these disturbing questions to mind: Have our children become susceptible to something ominous that we cannot yet fathom? If so, what is driving them? And, what are the times we are living in a prequel for?
This column first appeared in the Anton News, a chain of 18 Long Island, NY newpapers.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
"TODAY'S WORK AT YESTERDAY'S PRICES"
“Today’s work at yesterday’s prices”
by Andrew Malekoff © 2012
One of the oldest, largest and most well-respected community-based human service agencies closed on January 27, 2012. Some 300 employees at Chicago’s Jane Addams Hull House Association were handed layoff notices and final paychecks and were notified of the immediate discontinuation of their health care benefits. This is a tragedy and an ominous sign.
Hull House was founded in 1889 by social worker and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams and her lifetime friend and community-activist Ellen Gates Starr. Hull House began as a home for disenfranchised citizens. The organization’s mission was “neighbors helping neighbors.” In its early years Hull House was organized to help immigrants to learn English and the principles of democratic citizenship and to improve the lives and working conditions of many of those living on the west side of Chicago. In recent years Hull House’s focus was on foster care, child care, domestic violence counseling and job training.
Hull House was a beacon for social justice. It was guided by three basic principles: (1) active and side-by-side participation with community residents in addressing local issues, (2) respect for the dignity of all individuals regardless of ethnic background, socioeconomic status, gender or age and (3) belief that poverty and lack of opportunity breed ignorance, crime and disease that are the result of financial desperation and not due to a flaw in moral character.
Hull House’s demise was the result of its over-reliance on government financing. Margaret Berglind, president of Child Care Association of Illinois, commented that “The government is asking you to do today's work at yesterday's prices." I agree.
At North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center we have not seen an increase in our government contracts for a quarter-of-a-century. We are not alone. As with Jane Addams over 100 years ago, we depend on private citizens to invest in our mission - to restore and strengthen the emotional well-being of children and families. Our donors understand what is at stake. They are more than do-gooders, despite the good that they do. They understand that what we do is cost effective, saving tens of millions of taxpayer dollars by keeping troubled young people at home and out of emergency rooms and costly institutional settings.
I have reported extensively on what I believed would be the devastating outcome of New York State’s plan to restructure the financing of outpatient community-based mental health centers. Although I agreed that the over-reliance on Medicaid financing had to change, I strongly disagreed with the planners’ neglecting to provide reasonable local assistance for underinsured middle class and working poor children. State officials told me that that these families could seek help privately. My argument, based on first-hand experience, was that private practitioners would turn away troubled children that only a community-based agency had the culture, resources and wherewithal to serve effectively.
We are beginning to see the consequences of clinic reform on Long Island. In recent years several major community-based mental health clinics have either closed their doors, been taken over by New York City-based conglomerates with no community roots or transformed their outpatient operations into per-diem factories with no salaried employees. Much of this has happened under the radar.
Was it the intention of the New York State Office of Mental Health to shrink the system of care? Although it is not their job to keep providers in business, it is their responsibility to ensure ample access and consumer choice and to make sure our most vulnerable citizens - our children - get care, regardless of their family's economic status.
I am certain that Jane Addams would have agreed.
To be published in the Anton chain of 18 Long Island, NY newspapers in February 2012.
by Andrew Malekoff © 2012
One of the oldest, largest and most well-respected community-based human service agencies closed on January 27, 2012. Some 300 employees at Chicago’s Jane Addams Hull House Association were handed layoff notices and final paychecks and were notified of the immediate discontinuation of their health care benefits. This is a tragedy and an ominous sign.
Hull House was founded in 1889 by social worker and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams and her lifetime friend and community-activist Ellen Gates Starr. Hull House began as a home for disenfranchised citizens. The organization’s mission was “neighbors helping neighbors.” In its early years Hull House was organized to help immigrants to learn English and the principles of democratic citizenship and to improve the lives and working conditions of many of those living on the west side of Chicago. In recent years Hull House’s focus was on foster care, child care, domestic violence counseling and job training.
Hull House was a beacon for social justice. It was guided by three basic principles: (1) active and side-by-side participation with community residents in addressing local issues, (2) respect for the dignity of all individuals regardless of ethnic background, socioeconomic status, gender or age and (3) belief that poverty and lack of opportunity breed ignorance, crime and disease that are the result of financial desperation and not due to a flaw in moral character.
Hull House’s demise was the result of its over-reliance on government financing. Margaret Berglind, president of Child Care Association of Illinois, commented that “The government is asking you to do today's work at yesterday's prices." I agree.
At North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center we have not seen an increase in our government contracts for a quarter-of-a-century. We are not alone. As with Jane Addams over 100 years ago, we depend on private citizens to invest in our mission - to restore and strengthen the emotional well-being of children and families. Our donors understand what is at stake. They are more than do-gooders, despite the good that they do. They understand that what we do is cost effective, saving tens of millions of taxpayer dollars by keeping troubled young people at home and out of emergency rooms and costly institutional settings.
I have reported extensively on what I believed would be the devastating outcome of New York State’s plan to restructure the financing of outpatient community-based mental health centers. Although I agreed that the over-reliance on Medicaid financing had to change, I strongly disagreed with the planners’ neglecting to provide reasonable local assistance for underinsured middle class and working poor children. State officials told me that that these families could seek help privately. My argument, based on first-hand experience, was that private practitioners would turn away troubled children that only a community-based agency had the culture, resources and wherewithal to serve effectively.
We are beginning to see the consequences of clinic reform on Long Island. In recent years several major community-based mental health clinics have either closed their doors, been taken over by New York City-based conglomerates with no community roots or transformed their outpatient operations into per-diem factories with no salaried employees. Much of this has happened under the radar.
Was it the intention of the New York State Office of Mental Health to shrink the system of care? Although it is not their job to keep providers in business, it is their responsibility to ensure ample access and consumer choice and to make sure our most vulnerable citizens - our children - get care, regardless of their family's economic status.
I am certain that Jane Addams would have agreed.
To be published in the Anton chain of 18 Long Island, NY newspapers in February 2012.
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