Because Feelings Trump Facts, Even In Domestic Cases

Knoxville attorney K.O. Herston recently published a blog post about how Tennessee changed their Permanent Parenting Plan forms from documents that identified a "Mother" and "Father" to "Parent 1" and "Parent 2."  

I thought this to be a fine change in the wake of the Obergefell decision by the Supreme Court.  There's nothing wrong with also changing the forms to "Parent 1" and "Parent 2," as opposed to "Mother and Father."  It recognizes the ever-evolving familial dynamics between people in the State and lets people who are going through a divorce know that the State recognizes this distinction.  

Turns out recently the Administrative Office of the Courts reverted back to the old wording of "Mother" and "Father because some people got their feelz hurt and decided that it was a good idea to complain until the Courts changed things back to the old "Mother" and "Father" designations on the PPP forms.  Apparently it's now offensive to even suggest that there might be two mommies or two daddies on a piece of paper, or even maybe broach the notions that the "traditional" nuclear family is an ideal.  

These people have no right to complain about anyone else moaning when their "feelings" get hurt over "microaggressions," "implicit biases," or any combination of the new Political Correctness thereof.  Moreover, I respectfully submit that these complainers have no right to start talking about being "bullied," "persecuted," or "silenced" because of their beliefs.  You don't get to start complaining about your own feelz being hurt because a piece of paper says something and then turn around to another person who's not been able to marry the person they love because they happened to be the same sex and dismiss their feelings as invalid.  

I take no stance on political correctness.  I take a big stance on personal freedom.  I thought the designation of "Parent 1" and "Parent 2" is far better than the alternative, just because it places the Court's forms in a neutral ground and realizes that relationships have evolved since the days of the nuclear family dynamic.  To keep insisting that we MUST see every family going through a marital dissolution designate a "mother" and "father" despite the martial relationship being contrary to those designations, I think, is disingenuous on a moral and intellectual level.  And it ignores facts.  

I hope Tennessee turns things back to "Parent 1" and "Parent 2" for the sake of being more current with the times and at least in sheer recognition that there's a different family dynamic now than just "Mother" and "Father."  Regardless of my personal beliefs on the issue, I tend to think that the best course of action than to worry about the backlash from institutions which believe it's morally wrong and detrimental to children without producing concrete evidence supporting their position.  

Because absent that, it's just outrage trumping facts, and we've got enough of that already.  

When Mistakes Are Okay For Government Agents

It's a bizarre thing, the notion of accountability.  If I commit a mistake in my line of work that deprives a person of his or her rights, liberties, or property, then it's considered "malpractice" and I'm liable for it.  When the party committing the mistake is a government agent, however, they usually get a free pass, especially if the work is done to stop a bad person from hurting others or especially if it's done "for the good of the children."  The work of police, child services workers nationwide, and the various prosecutors that back them are no better or no worse professions than the adversarial parties that check their powers to prevent government abuse, but the big difference is we castigate the defense attorneys and give the government workers a free pass.  

And where does this leave us?  With people who can make mistakes that deprive people of their liberties, their property, and even their very lives--and get away with it by saying "oops."  
 

Much has been said about the work of police in recent months, and I don't want to take away from Radley Balko's, Scott Greenfield's, or Ken White's work on the subject.  What I want to focus on are the mistakes that child services workers commit and how those impact the lives of children in the State of Tennessee.  

If a person is indicated for child abuse or neglect, that will be used against them in the Juvenile Court system by DCS workers to show that child abuse or neglect has actually occurred--even if the alleged acts never took place.  This will be used as basis to justify the removal of children from the home, and placement into a foster care situation.  With the registry now public, the person will be placed on a list that anyone with a computer and internet access can use to deny people homes, credit, loans, even jobs so they can support the children that are now no longer in their care.  If the substantiation is later overturned by an administrative judge--which rarely happens because people don't know enough to exercise their rights in a given area--DCS can still say that there's still a reason to justify removing a child from a home and putting them into foster care because "a court found that removal was appropriate."  

Starting to connect the dots yet?  A person is found to be a bad parent or caregiver due to a letter that has no basis in fact--something that is decided by an independent tribunal in secret without the accused knowing of the evidence used against them, and then that decision is used later in a court of law as evidence if the government agency decides that it's "in the best interests of the children."  If that tribunal's decision is later overturned, the government agency issuing the original decision can then say "whoops, we're sorry we made a mistake in our original investigation, but a Court found that we were still right anyway even though we used faulty evidence and it's for the good of the children so it all worked out right in the end!"  

No.  You don't get to do that.  You don't get to wrap yourself in the notions of truth, justice, and the American Way and then later use your mistakes to justify how righteous you are because a Court found your faulty evidence as justification for destroying familial ties.  It's offensive to traditional notions of justice and fair play, and an affront to the Court system, and yet we do it every day "for the good of the children."  

This is the system we have created, and there's no end in sight.