Sharing Family Values

time magazine ^ | 2/15/03 | AMANDA BOWER

[freepatriot32]

For much of her young daughters' lives, Tina Louise Cruz says, she sold drugs or sex to keep a roof over their heads. Each evening after the family had gulped down a meal of greasy fast food, Cruz would shut the door on her children and get high on methamphetamines. Then a new baby tested positive for drugs, and the older Cruz girls soon joined their infant sister in California's child protective services. But instead of moving the children from one foster home to a another, authorities in Contra Costa County gave Cruz a different option: move in with a family herself.

After completing a course of court-ordered drug treatment, Cruz, 37, got her baby back and moved last September into the Antioch, Calif., home of Barbara Funderburk, a mentor paid to teach Cruz the basics of good parenting. Together Cruz and Funderburk, a mother of two, planned meals, made budgets and discussed how to hold down a job and raise a family. "This is a new thing for me, to not be high and have a baby," says Cruz, who graduated from the program early and has spent the past three weeks setting up a new life in San Jose, Calif. She has started work in a cafeteria, her first job in 15 years, and her two other daughters have moved from their aunt's place to join their mother and little sister. "I got another chance with my children," says Cruz. "I feel complete."

[visualops]

All too often, kids grow up without being taught the basics necessary to perpetuate a civilized society. This includes reasoned thought, self control and responsibility. Continued dependance and expectation that the state (Hillary's village) is a good replacement for the family exacerbates the problem.
It is truly a sad and telling example when, at 37, someone is taught what should have been learned during their formative years.

[kitkat]

I agree with you, but I don't think that at 37 this woman is going to learn all those values from some state-sponsored course. In six months, she'll be back to drugs and prostitution.

Those kids need to be in an orphanage, not pushed from house to house in still another state-sponsored program. They need security. They need to be with people who will teach them responsibility for their actions.

[expatpat]

I think this is worth a try, but they should abort the experiment the moment Cruz starts slipping back.

[visualops]

Oh yeah I don't doubt that.

[LadyDoc]

Tina Louise Cruz says, she sold drugs or sex to keep a roof over their heads. Each evening after the family had gulped down a meal of greasy fast food, Cruz would shut the door on her children and get high on methamphetamines.

She didn't "sell drugs or have sex to keep a roof over their (her children's) heads. She did it to buy meth.