Saturday, April 23, 2011

Please, sir, can I have some more?

I really can’t believe this.

When I checked Facebook this morning, I ran across a link to a story about how Michigan State Senator Bruce Caswell has proposed that children in foster care be allowed to purchase clothing only from used clothing stores.

That’s right. Foster kids aren’t stigmatized and mistreated enough as it is. They apparently need to experience the same blows to their fragile self-esteem that a miserable, piece of sh*t politician from southwest Michigan must have suffered:

“I never had anything new,” Caswell says. “I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was — and quite frankly it’s true — once you’re out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you bought your clothes.”

Caswell wants foster kids to get gift cards that can only be used at places like the Salvation Army, Goodwill and other second-hand clothing stores. He insists the plan will save money, though he doesn’t know how much or what the state currently pays to clothe children in the foster care system.

To which political party do you think this insensitive cretin belongs?

I’ve got nothing against “vintage” clothing – in my family of six we share and pass articles around until they're reduced to tatters – and it’s good to make sure tax dollars are wisely spent. But this is offensive. This is nothing more than a loutish politician’s attempt to bolster his name ID at the expense of vulnerable, hurting children.

This kind of crap belongs in a Dickensian novel. And Bruce Caswell may not have been ashamed of the used clothing he wore as a youth, but he ought to be ashamed of the despicable man he’s become.


Senator Bruce Caswell
P.O. Box 30036
Lansing, MI 48909-7536
(517) 373-5932
SenBCaswell@senate.michigan.gov



Source: Michigan Messenger

4 comments:

  1. Children in foster care should be able to wear whatever their foster parents provide for them; whether it's Gucci or Polo or hand-me-downs. Children already get stigmatized by their peers regarding the clothes they wear, why compound the issue with "clothes stamps".
    I understand that foster parents are subsidized by the government, but the foster parents should have the authority to decide what the child in their care will wear.
    If the foster parents drive Cadillacs and live in Bloomfield Hills, do you think their foster kids would be wearing 3rd generation clothing...C'mon, man! Mr. Caswell, have you lost your mind, or do you just need to pitch an idea for the sake of pitching an idea?

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  2. Wow! I can't even get my mind around this kind of stupidity.

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  3. Do you know these lyrics to the song by Fall Out Boy?
    I don't care what you think
    As long as it’s about me.
    The best of us can find
    Happiness in misery.

    This horrible excuse for a human being only wanted some free media. He doesn’t care what you think of him as long as you are looking his way. And now you know his name.

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