Newspaper Page Text
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♦ WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2006
Moulton HJmmutl
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Building Georgia's behavioral
health care system
Editor’s note: The following is a guest
editorial by B.J. Walker, commissioner
for the Georgia Department of Human
Resources
There’s probably not a family in
Georgia that has not been affect
ed by mental illness. That’s why
the Department of Human Resources has
worked so hard over the past few years
to build a comprehensive system of ser
vices. Across the state, we re-distributed
the funding so that every area gets their
fair share. We responded to the need for a
single point of
entry, so that
people could
easily find ser
vices by hav
ing one state
wide number
to call (800-
715-4225).
And we are
making sure
that all of the
money appro-
priated for children and adolescents is
actually spent on them. These are all sig
nificant improvements, but sometimes it
feels like renovating a house while you are
living in it. We’re by no means finished,
but a new foundation is in place that will
last for years to come.
Any time you build a house, it is critical
to stay in touch with the homeowners, and
for us, that would be consumers and their
families. Therefore, over the next month,
we will be meeting with them at forums
organized by the National Alliance on
Mental Illness, and we’ll be asking: What
are the strengths of our mental health
system and how can we build on them?
We already know some things: Georgia’s
state operated mental health hospitals
score better today on key national mea
sures than in previous years.
We are seeing reductions in medication
errors, the use of seclusion and restraint,
as well as deaths, abuse, and injuries. Not
only have we improved we’re in line with
or better than the national average on
many measures.
We know that our efforts to build com
munity-based services are getting results.
There has been a steady increase, of about
10 percent, in the number of people receiv
ing services in their communities.
In addition, local crisis stabilization pro
grams are keeping people from having
long hospital stays, sometimes far from
home. For adults, we have increased our
capacity to deal with crises and emergen
cies by 34 percent since 2004. For children,
we built Georgia’s first crisis stabilization
program in Savannah, allowing us to close
an expensive hospital unit and invest the
SI.2M savings in more community-based
services for children and teens. This year,
DHR will add four crisis stabilization pro
grams so that every region of the state
will be served.
The result will be fewer children having
long hospital stays and more services close
to the loving arms of their families and
communities.
We all know that crises in the lives of
people who are mentally ill often result in
them going to jail or prison. Earlier this
year, NAMI announced their partnership
with us to train 20 percent of all frontline
law enforcement officers on effective ways
to identify and deal with people with men
tal illness.
It is the right work and will make a
world of difference when there is someone
trained in every law enforcement agency
statewide.
Mental health services in Georgia are
improving. We at DHR are looking for
opportunities to build on these results.
There are still many unanswered ques
tions. Our conversations around the state
should help us find those answers.
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
The result will be
fewer children hsvlng
long hospital stays and
more services close
to the loving arms
of their families and
communities.
Selling a false sense of reality?
A family is riding around in an
SUV Mom and Dad are in the
front seat with son and daughter
in the back. They are all smiling and
talking.
They stop at a roadside farm stand
and at the beach where Mom takes a
picture of Dad with the kids and the
dog. A voice-over says, “More than 500
miles on a tank of gas.”
Then the SUV pulls up to an apart
ment/townhouse complex and Dad gets
out with his duffle bag. As he kneels
down and hugs a child in each arm,
he looks up at Mom, waiting in the
driver’s seat with the car running, and
he says to her, “Thanks for inviting
me this weekend.” She gives him a
sad half-smile and a nod and replies,
“Sure.” Dad tells the kids goodbye and
“see you next week” and they wave to
him as they run and get back in the
car with mom. The last shot we see is
the back of the son’s head as he waves
goodbye to Dad who is left standing on
the street waving back. And then the
final voice-over: “Bold moves. They
happen every day.”
This is the new commercial for the
Ford Freestyle Crossover. A commer
cial that left me and many other view
ers with a strange, unsettled feeling.
It felt creepy, actually. The ad has
even sparked quite a discussion in the
advertising industry with websites and
blogs dedicating much space and many
comments trying to make sense of it.
What exactly is Ford trying to com
municate? Who is the target audi
ence?
Surely the message isn’t, “Get this
car. It’s big enough to accomodate
your ex and all of your collective bag
gage,” or “Five hundred miles on a
tank of gas—which will come in handy
during all the driving you’ll be doing
to fulfill shared custody agreements.”
And certainly the ad isn’t targeting
divorced dads with, “You had to be
invited in order to spend this outing
with your kids and when it’s all over,
you get dropped off in the driveway,
like a child, while Mom drives away
with the car and the family.”
Is it targeting divorced moms by por
traying the woman as magnanimous
yet in control, heralding her “bold
ness” at inviting the ex along? I have
to ask: is this really the kind of “bold
move” that “happens everyday?” I
don’t know a single divorced couple or
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Winning now more important than governing
Candidates seem more intent on
winning than on governing.
Chances for improvement
before the November elections are
slimmer than Calista Flockhart’s shad
ow, too.
Let’s go to the details: In yet another
chance to exercise our democratic mus
cles, we have once again set the bar
embarrassingly low.
No, Mr. Smith does not need to go
to Washington, but we can do better.
Winning now takes precedence over
governing, giving an eerie reality to
Bill McKay, Robert Redford’s movie
character in “The Candidate,” who,
after winning a seat in the U.S. Senate,
turns to his political consultant and
asks “What do we do now?”
The distinction is important, the
question more real than it should
be. Winning an election today often
requires a different skill set than devel
oping sound public policy, writing rea
sonable laws or providing strong lead
ership.
Although lately lurching toward some
semblance of political debate but still
mostly obsessed with the other guy,
Nebraska’s well-documented Ricketts/
Nelson throwdown comes to mind.
The win-now-what-do-we-do-later
philosophy is widespread, however,
maybe even chronic.
According to factcheck.org., many
states have had the dubious good for
tune to host nasty, expensive and often
distorted political races.
For example, in Nevada, where some
called the campaign “the ugliest prima
ry no one is watching,” two Democrats
running for Congress decided accuracy
in advertising was simply not a prior-
OPINION
child of divorce who can relate to the
experience played in the commercial.
It may happen for some, but this is not
the divorce story most people have.
Then it hits me. I understand why
the ad feels creepy, weird and unset
tling to me. It’s because of my own
experience with the “divorce drop off.”
Like most kids from divorced families,
I was the subject of the all-too-famil
iar handoff. In the commercial, just
before dropping off Dad, we catch a
moment where the son is looking out
the window and his face shows appre
hension, maybe worry. And that’s the
reality.
I never saw my divorced parents
fight. They did a great job of not talk
ing negatively about each other to me.
And they managed to be perfectly civil,
even cordial when they had occasion to
be in each other’s presence.
Even so, I never felt the broken
ness of my family situation more than
during those brief moments when my
parents were together, only to sepa
rate again as soon as the handoff was
made. In those moments, I was more
acutely aware that things weren’t as
they should be. It was awkward. Any
happiness or normality on display felt
forced. In fact, for the entire day lead
ing up to the drop off, I’d be sick to my
stomach, nervous and after the trans
action was complete, just before we
resumed our “normal” divorced family
lives, I would sob—safely out of sight of
either parent of course.
And so the commercial makes me
uneasy. Because of the kids. Now, of
course parents who are divorced must
make the effort to co-parent in a way
that is best for the kids given the cir
cumstances. But forget the parents for
a minute.
What about the children in the ad
who are getting a taste of what life
might be like if their family was intact.
In the midst of all the fun and togeth
erness, is there hope brewing that
ity. In Georgia, Ralph Reed didn’t let
the facts get in the way of a solid bid
for lieutenant governor. Ohio has been
blessed with a “distortion and insinu
ation” debate over just who is tougher
on terror.
Speaking of which, within hours of
British agents foiling a plot to bomb
U.S.-bound planes from London, politi
cians were playing the election-year
soft-on-terror card.
The Dems generally questioned the
administration’s balking at spend
ing on airport security in this coun
try; the GOP wanted the world to
know that it was the tougher party on
“Islamofascists.”
In a highly unusual cameo perfor
mance that crossed party lines, Vice
President Dick Cheney claimed Ned
Lamont’s victory over Joe Leiberman
in the Connecticut Democratic primary
for Senate would encourage “al-Qaida
types.” He offered no evidence as to
how he knew this.
Yes, it might be politics as usual
- a sad state and an argument I find
a complete capitulation, taking a dive
like a crooked boxer with a large chit.
If we accept that lies, innuendo and
nonsense underpin the process by
which we choose leaders of the free
world, it’s a laydown.
Jamie
Self
Columnist
Georgia Family Council
George
Ayoub
Columnist
Morris News Service
Mom and Dad could still work it out?
(Most of us had such fantasies even
without our parents taking us on vaca
tion together.) What about the kids
who, when all is said and done, must
live with the fact that while their par
ents can figure out how to get along
and be happy for a weekend “for the
sake of the kids,” a weekend is where
it stops?
I can’t help but feel a sense of waste,
of loss, at the thought of a couple who
can learn to work together and be
happy for several days but don’t see
the possibility of stringing those sev
eral days together with several more.
I ache over the scene of these parents
who recognize that their kids need a
family, they need their Dad and their
Mom, enough to make the sacrifices
and compromises necessary to give
them that—but only for a short time
after which the family must separate
all over again.
Ford’s general marketing manager,
John Felice, said the ad is meant to be
a “celebration of family.” A manag
ing director for a corporate identity
consulting company reviewed the ad
saying, “Divorce is so common that I
don’t think people view it as sad and
depressing anymore.” %
I disagree. Some divorces may be
necessary (although I am prepared to
argue far fewer than actually occur).
But the common occurrence of divorce
makes it no less sad than the far more
common occurrence of death. Perhaps
it is a “bold move” for Ford to try to
sell SUVs using an ad that leaves so
many viewers feeling as unsettled as I
was. Perhaps we can be bold enough to
acknowledge, without apology, the con
sequences of divorce for kids. Perhaps
it would be an even bolder move, one
that certainly does not happen every
day, if parents could learn to work
together to be about the things that
are best for their kids while they are
married rather than afterward.
Georgia Family Council is a non-prof
it organization that works to strength
en and defend the family in Georgia
by impacting communities, shaping
laws and influencing culture. For more
information, go to www.georguafamily.
org, (770) 242-0001 or jamir@gafam.
org.
And if it’s just politics, the results
are clear, too: Rarely do more than
half of us participate at the ballot box.
Hundreds of local and state races go
uncontested. That ought to tell us
something.
We also have accepted that nothing
gets accomplished in Congress during
an election year. We do this for three
reasons.
One, incumbents need time to cam
paign. Two, an election year is now
about 16-17 months. Three, an expan
sive voting record in an election year
doesn’t always square with 30-seconds
of soft-focus syrup about values or tor
tured logic about an opponent.
Meanwhile, real problems remain.
Nor does a candidate’s approval of a
political ad magically confer veracity,
accuracy or common sense. More often,
“I approve this ad” makes me question
someone’s judgment.
Here’s a tagline you’ll never see:
“I’m Ken Candidate, and I approve this
ad ... OK, you can obviously see it is
shot through with innuendo and half
truths, but it does have stunning pro
duction values and catchy music. My
handlers tell me this is the way to go.
I wanted to talk about Social Security,
the minimum wage and the future of
the Middle East. But they insisted vot
ers will buy it if we show the other guy
wearing a flowered shirt in 1969 and
call him soft on terrorism, soft on ille
gal immigration and soft in the head. I
know it’s a stretch. Sorry.
“Anyway ... vote for me? Please?”
No way, Pal. I’m voting for Bill
McKay. He can see the forest.
Reach George Ayoub at george.
ayoub@morris.com.
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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL