And now for a partisan, torturous edition of…
YOU SUCK!!!!
I realize the Republican Party seems to exist for no other reason than to stop the Democrats from doing whatever it is they’re doing, no matter what it is. To be fair, Democrats do the reverse as well, but not quite as much, considering almost no Republicans in Congress or Senate seem to ever vote the “Democrat” side of an issue, while Democratic Congressmen and Senators do so quite a bit. And it’s pisses ordinary Democrats the hell off! But I digress.
So, as part of the Republicans’ agenda of don’t-fucking-let-anything-pass, now they’ve effectively stalled legislation to get teen behavior modification facilities some much needed regulations. HR 911 passed the House and then it’s been in a Senate committee to see if it’ll get put to a full vote before the Senate. We NYRAnians met with the chair of that committee, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), to help move it through the committee. The senator agrees with our position on it. The trouble was some pesky Republican Senators on that committee who seemed to have some qualms about some of what this anti-torture school legislation is asking. Seriously, go to the above link to read Alex’s piece about it in Huffington Post. These Republican Senators have a problem with things like forcing school to do things like, oh, NOT withholding food or vital medical treatment from students as therapy.
NYRA is on this! Alex has been posting good stuff to Huffington Post now and then, and now Dave Moss is a regular writer on education on Change.org! Check out Dave’s write-up on Change about this issue! And sign the petition!
Because, really, this is more than just an issue of justice and common sense. It’s a matter of life and death. It’s a matter of thousands of people, real people, having suffered through these places, often for such ridiculous reasons as coming out of the closet, for slipping grades, for questioning the family’s religion, or for whatever other reason the parents deem enough to send their children to places with fewer safety regulations than PRISONS. And while it may not seem like survivors of these programs make up a huge proportion of all teenagers, EVERY teenager is at risk as long as these places exist and are legal. Absolutely any teen you know can wind up sent away to one of these places at any time. I don’t know about you, but I find that really fucking terrifying. And I’m too old to be a victim now. Imagine the terror for those who still are teens.
I know people who’ve suffered through programs like these. They’re my friends. They’re good people. Programs like these did not make them good people. They were good people already, yet someone in their life couldn’t fucking appreciate them for already being good people and felt the need to ship them off to a torture school.
But I suppose the idea of so many endangered young lives means nothing to Republicans. Nothing other than they must oppose any legislation to help them, that is. Because otherwise they’d sound like no-good Democrats and we can’t have that! 🙄
yet another of the many, many reasons why the republican parties suck.