From the “You have got to be kidding me” file, we have Tacoma’s own Rosa Franklin
Decades ago, poor children became known as “disadvantaged” to soften the stigma of poverty. Then they were “at risk.” Now, a Washington lawmaker wants to replace those euphemisms with a new one, “at hope.”
Democratic State Sen. Rosa Franklin says negative labels are hurting kids’ chances for success and has proposed rewriting 54 places in state law where words like “at risk” and “disadvantaged” are used.
The bill has gotten a warm welcome among fellow lawmakers, state officials and advocacy groups.
“We really put too many negatives on our kids,” says Franklin, who is the state Senate’s president pro tem. “We need to come up with positive terms.”
No, you need to come up with some positive role-models, because apparently these kid’s parents aren’t filling the slot.
It doesn’t matter if you call a person “midget”, “dwarf” or “little person”, they’re still going to be “height disadvantaged” and not be able to see over the counter at the bank.
It doesn’t matter if they call these kids “disadvantaged”, “at risk”, “at hope” or “future inmate #304761659”, they’re still going to grow up to be whatever they work to be.
Yet more of doing what feels good instead of what would actually work because doing the latter takes effort.
Oh, and if you want to click this link, you’ll see that Senator Franklin is so involved with keeping her constituents up to date that she hasn’t updated her site since fuckin’ August.