Thursday, October 30, 2008

Holiday ride share offer

This craigslist posting was forwarded to me yesterday. I'm sure it's someone's warped sense of humor at work, but it's a clever way of expressing an opinion on the wisdom of Nebraska's Safe Haven law. I don't know how long the link will be functional, so I'll post the full text:

A safe haven for your child (Omaha)

Date: 2008-10-28, 7:35PM EDT

My family and I will be in the Atlanta area over the Thanksgiving holiday, after Thanksgiving we will be heading home to Omaha, Nebraska. We will have an empty seat in our car on the way home. Nebraska allows any child under the age of 18 to be dropped off and become a ward of the state, this is refereed to as the Safe Haven Law.

One lucky Georgia resident has already taken advantage of this wonderful program. I'm offering you an opportunity to do the same, I'll transport your child from Atlanta to Nebraska for the cost of fuel, $125. Upon arriving in Nebraska I will drop your child off at a local hospital where they will become a ward of the state.

Nebraska law makers have said they are going to change the law next year, so you may not have another opportunity to shed those unwanted responsibilities of parenthood so easily again. I have reliable transportation and can guarantee your child will make it to Nebraska without issue, or your money back. If you have any questions please ask.

Location: Omaha
PostingID: 897386955


Looks like the window of opportunity may be short, based on the Governor's call for a special legislative session to revisit the law.

On a lighter note, this article was also forwarded to me. I thought that the appropriate title for a blog post on this topic would be "Silent but Deadly."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent sarcasm in that Craigslist ad. The law needs fixed, but here's my problem with calling a special session to amend it:

A single news event (an Omaha woman who could easily have crossed the bridge and deposited her infant at a Iowa hospital), got heavy rotation on a slow news day, and sparked the conflagration. The law was written in a panicked manner, rushed through with only an inkling of consideration, and no real opposition (including no real opposition from Sen. Filibuster), because a body of political cowards were desperate to stop the ringing phones and overstuffed e-mail boxes. In a final act of political cowardice, it was then signed into law, not symbolically vetoed. He's as dirty as the rest of them. Hundreds of thousands of Nebraskans took one look at this "dump them till they're 19" thing and saw a world of trouble and stupidity. They were right.

But, wait, the political cowardice is still here! With an election impending, the same legislative body that went brain-dead and passed this turkey in a frightened rush, wants us to believe (as it apparently does) that it can amend this law, again in a panicked rush, and right effin now!

I say wait until the regular session, then fix it first thing, doing what you should have done in the first place - roughly mirror the safe haven laws of our neighboring states. The Unicameral clown show has already proven that we can't rely on them in a heavy-pressure situation.

Anonymous said...

sort of on topic:

My addict/alcoholic will be going to live with his sister. They are better matched to cope with challenges that come to them. They both are victims of sexual abuse from the step-dad. It may be that both siblings will form an alliance together and be a source of empowerment while dealing with the destroyed psyche they have. PTSD is common in young people who travel through hell. Many have gone through the hell those two have.

The world has many more individuals like my abused son. Thousands and thousands have the same kind of thinking process. His prior home was A hell on earth.

No further treatment and counseling is going to help this young man. He has worked the system like a pro. He has pissed on the ones that want to help him and spat on the powers that be. The sad part is that the Nebraska penitentiary is full of people that think and act like this young man. As an adult, the blame is not on how one was raised. The blame should not be placed on the victim of the abuse. The blame is an excuse. A rationalization. It can not be placed. That's all.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see the Safe Haven Law expanded to the age of 55. There are a couple of people I'd like to drop off.

Anonymous said...

I hope that I'm not the only one who finds this incident summary to be highly ironic:

"ITEMS FOUND DURING SHOPLIFT FROM OTHER STORE ON PRS BLU SPENCER NOVELTY POLICE BABY OUTFIT"

Tom Casady said...

9:35-

Hah! That's a great find! Case number A8-109021 (for my own future reference).

Anonymous said...

If they wished to dress their little one up in that outfit, in order to give their Halloween weekend a law enforcement theme, they sure got their wish 8^P

Do you think that larceny A8-097308 and boom boom vandalism A8-109616 are connected, or was it just another end-of-month rent party gone wild at an absentee landlord's property? Interestingly (and to the dismay of the neighbors, no doubt), every incident in the last 90 days, within 500 feet of that house, has been at that house.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that A8-109616 house is owner-occupied; I sure called that one wrong. The county assessor's database was down all weekend so I couldn't check, and I was stunned when I discovered that it wasn't a rental. Single male owner/resident, lived there for a couple of years, nothing at the Cty Atty site on record except for "Vaccination for Rabies" (as in failing to keep current on your pet), $25 fine, way back in 1999. Still, that 10/31 party was a lot of violent activity for that normally tame neighborhood.