Do Foster Children’s Lives Even Matter?

Why the “Inhumanity” Continues

A few years ago, I crafted a primetime series concept called “Mother Hubbard.” I did so, not from the standpoint of becoming a major television producer with awards credited to my name. I already have plenty of awards and don’t live my life for them. Nor did I do it because I particularly wanted to venture into that world simply as something new to do. Why I spent the considerable time that I did creating that concept was because of all I learned regarding the plight of children living in foster care on my journey to becoming licensed as a foster parent. My goal was to go beyond what was already being done in series entertainment in limited form through one or two other projects that dared to broach the matter. I wanted to graphically show ‘without actually showing it’ what so many children have to deal with, including the mental, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse these kids encounter, not to mention early death for some by the very hands that they have been entrusted to.

The leading character, Mother Hubbard, was an African American woman and social worker. I based her upon someone I actually came to know when going through the process of obtaining my license. The stories she shared with me were heartbreaking.

Suffice it to say, the few people who I allowed to read the pilot story as I was crafting it, gasped and cried — their faces displaying expressions of horror, sadness, and outrage. The fact of the matter is, however, unless you are able to elicit such strong emotions while you are raising awareness, the lives of the kids and the system that they are living in will never change. Frankly, the entire treatment was one of the hardest things that I ever wrote. This type of writing goes against my very nature. But I knew that I needed to pulled it out of me for the sake of these kids.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of good people besides me fighting the good fight. But the monumental task plagued with disingenuous characters (which includes foster parents that view foster kids as opportunities and easy paychecks), faulty inner-workings, professionals coping with burn-out and PTSD, legalities that protect abusers over children, and a nearly impenetrable veil of silence make it impossible to move the needle on this in the right direction for the 400,000+ kids forced to cope through no fault of their own. Imagine being them, these innocent, defenseless children. Seriously, take a moment to sit back and imagine.

Now while you are doing that, imagine being one of the twenty-three unfortunate souls in Texas who died in State custody during July 2019 and April 2021 as a result of drowning, medical neglect, overdosing on Tylenol, being beaten to death and being hit by a car, not to mention one teenager being placed in the care of a known human trafficker according to the most recent Monitor’s Report. Imagine being one of those kids, the terror that they must have been coping with as they struggled for their lives, both figuratively and literally. Maybe look at your only children as you think about it. Now think about adding X-number of new immigrant children into that mix, those who arrived to this country for the soul purpose of seeking a better life — many without their own parents to protect them. Which one of these kids will end up being #24…25…100. Is anyone listening yet beyond Judge Jack of Corpus Christi, Texas, who thankfully has a conscience and is asking the question, “When is enough going to be enough?” She asks it in this video which you shouldn’t miss. And don’t just think that Texas is the only state falling down on the job. They all are.

This is a nation-wide issue that more people need to become involved in as it affects all of us. If you want to look at it in a more clinical way, the monumental costs in increased incarceration, pregnancy, mental issues, and welfare that occur with regards to every child that enters the system will ultimately come from your pockets. And yet, my effort to sound the alarm through getting “Mother Hubbard” into the right television hands, the ones who could take on the project and ‘make the difference’, went the direction most things do when it comes to these kids — “bureaucracy” over “right.”

THIS, however, isn’t about a show or one person’s efforts. It’s about all of us doing our part to truly, truly save these little human beings from enduring the unthinkable anymore. They can’t do it for themselves, folks, even if they weren’t so drastically overlooked. As this month is National Foster Care Month, how many stories have you seen in mainstream on the matter? Hence, the title of this post, “Do Foster Children’s Lives Even Matter?”

It’s our choice as to how we want to continue to answer that question going forward. Up to this point, our nation should be ashamed of itself. This isn’t one party or one person’s issue. This is all of ours.