Where I Stand -- Mike O'Callaghan: Will changes in Nevada's Capitol be significant?

Next week there will be a new governor and hopefully some new bureaucrats in Carson City. Despite all of the poor-mouthing we have heard from Gov. Bob Miller and his replacement, Kenny Guinn, about next year's budget, the Nevada economy continues to grow. In reality, even more important than the amount of dollars is how those available are spent.

Despite a very healthy economy in 1997, the Legislature spent millions on pork and closed down the Southern Nevada Children's Home in Boulder City. So will anything change during the coming years? I don't know. The people who closed the home, Miller, Ken Patterson, who headed up the Division of Child and Family Services and his predecessor John Sarb, are all gone. Patterson's boss, Charlotte Crawford, has snuggled up to the incoming governor and will stay on to do whatever she's told to do. So are several of the legislators, who gleefully shut down both the Northern Nevada Children's Home and the Boulder City facility, still around. Some pretended to believe that "the kids are better off in foster care." Then they put $9 million into the governor's "family to family" program to make themselves feel good.

A week ago, professor Richard McKenzie, the author of "Rethinking Orphanages for the 21st Century," wrote an editorial in the Los Angeles Times newspaper:

"Over the past four years, an untold number of American children have endured Third World living conditions and the sordid consequences of their parents' horrific life choices. Four million cases of serious child abuse have been substantiated. More than a million children have cycled through the foster care system. A hundred thousand or more American kids who were in foster care in late 1994 remain there today -- and will be there in the next millennium.

"Over the past four years, tens of thousands of children have been repeatedly taken from their abusive and neglectful parents only to be abused again, sometimes with greater force, by the nation's child welfare system, which thinks nothing of separating brothers and sisters through a dozen or more foster care placements. These children have become seasoned troopers in what family court judges have come to call the 'plastic bag brigade' -- children who repeatedly show up in court for yet another placement with only a plastic bag in which to carry their possessions. They will never understand what other Americans mean by one of the most basic of human advantages: 'home,' a permanent place to call their own. Ill-prepared for a productive life outside the foster care system, many will be turned loose at age 18 to relive the lives of their parents." In 1994 and 1995, McKenzie surveyed 1,600 orphanage alumni and found the following:

"The orphanage alumni in the survey, all of whom are now middle-aged and older, have done very well as a group, exceeding by a substantial margin the educational and economic accomplishments of their counterparts in the general population. The alumni have a 39 percent higher college graduation rate than other Americans in their age group, far more income and substantially lower unemployment, poverty and incarceration rates. Moreover, the vast majority (upward of 85 percent) look back favorably on their orphanage experience and attribute much of their life's successes to what they learned about life, morality and work in their youth at the homes. Less than 3 percent view their experience unfavorable. Few pined for adoption."

Reading the column by McKenzie reminds me of a letter I received two years ago from Marci Lynn Manta who, along with her brother, lived at the Boulder City home for eight years after being abused in foster homes. Now a college graduate, Marci Lynn wrote:

"The Children's Home provided me with a stable and loving environment. Virginia and Charlie Lockhart, my cottage parents, taught me so much about life and people in general. I had the opportunity to live with individuals from a variety of cultures, socioeconomic status and different personalities. All of us learned to eat, work, play and study together. Complete strangers, initially, evolving into a close, caring family unit. Not to say we didn't have rough days, all families do! Imagine just the daily hubbub of 10 girls and two cottage parents. (Mmmm ... sounds like a show on TV) Probably wrote it just for us!

"My experience at the Southern Nevada Children's Home helped me become the well-rounded, nonjudgmental individual I have become. I am certain my caring for people and deep sensitivity for others was instilled in me by Virginia and Charlie Lockhart. I often wonder where I would be and if I would have gone so far in life without the love, encouragement and support of all the people at the Children's Home. I am proud to be part of such a wonderful organization. Kind of sounds like what home and family is all about."

Incidentally, the Boulder City Council, like the state bureaucrats and legislators, didn't cover themselves with glory when turning down Father Herbert Ward and the St. Jude's Ranch for Children's offer to take over and operate the facility.

So will there be any worthwhile changes in attitude and Crawford's Department of Human Resources, the 1999 Legislature and the office of governor? It will be worthwhile watching.

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