Oprah Learns it Doesn't Take a Village!

Published on October 30, 2007 By Gideon MacLeish In Current Events

I feel sorry for Oprah Winfrey, I really do.

I know that she meant a world of good when she set up her school for girls in South Africa. She meant to give them a hope and a promise of a better future. And that makes Oprah Winfrey a marvelous woman in my book, regardless of the actions of her staff.

But she learned all too well that the liberal mantra that "it takes a village" is so deluded, so wrong, as to be dangerous. It's the same lesson that we should learn from our own US foster care system. Oprah's school took these children in and boarded them so that they could learn, in essence providing a sort of foster care service for these children. And just as in American foster care systems, abuse did not go away once these children were in a "stable" home.

In the United States foster care system, in fact, incidents of sexual/physical abuse are GREATER in the foster care system than they are in the homes of the birth parents. Far from protecting children, the foster care system offers the hope of protecting children but actually destroys all too many of them. And who knows what long term effects Oprah's students will suffer?

Abuse and malicious neglect are horrible things to witness and even more horrible things to live through. But hopefully someday we'll get to a point where we see that the "solutions" we provide to these problems aren't solutions at all, but rather, all too often exacerbate a horrible situation. I can tell you from experience that once you've reported two or three foster parents in the US system, you're pretty much labelled as a hard to place child and will only be sent to foster parents who will TAKE hard to place children.

Ever wonder why those parents take those hard to place kids? Yup. You guessed it.

Oprah Winfrey, I believe, has a genuine heart of gold, and showed it by opening the school in the first place. But the best heart of gold can't overcome the fact that the predators that stalk children deliberately put themselves in places of authority over these already vulnerable children just because it is so easy. And that is why it doesn't take a village. Because all too often, the villagers who will stand up to care for our children are the very villagers we want to keep them FROM.

http://tv.yahoo.com/contributor/30579/news/urn:newsml:tv.eonline.com:20071029:23d20729_b54a41fd_8e65_7a77b14e3914__ER:69381

Comments

Gideon MacLeish

on Oct 30, 2007

I dunno, LW. Oprah supports Barak Obama, and that's cool with me because Obama, for all his faults, is NOT HILLARY!

No, she had a point, and a good one een conservatives should acknowledge. She was asked why she didn't open such a school in America and she said that it was because American students HAVE the opportunity, African students do not.

I'm not an Oprah fan, per se. But of the liberal ilk, she is among the more tolerable, in my estimation.

Dr Guy

on Oct 30, 2007

I dont know Oprah that well (other than her actions that make the news), so I cant say if she has a big heart or not. It would seem so based upon your report and the article.

It is sad - for the children and the parents. Hopefully it is a wake up call for her. Not to stop trying, but to be more attentive to her actions. We need people like her willing to look at new models, but they also need to realize that while their intentions are altruistic, they are not for all those involved.

And you made a very good point - one I have tried on several occassions to make. The job does not create the perpetrator, it just attracts those who see an opportunity.

stevendedalus

on Oct 30, 2007

an exercise in philanthropical vanity

Brutally targeted statement. Three cheers!

ParaTed2k

on Oct 30, 2007

Hillary and people like her bastardize the whole "it takes a village" concept. A Village isn't the government, it's family, friends, neighbors and private organizations. To people like Hillary, "it takes a village" means, "you're too incompetent, so we'll do it for you".

ParaTed2k

on Oct 30, 2007

stevendedalus

on Oct 30, 2007

Gideon, your heart's in the right place too; but don't blame the barrel for a few bad apples.

Moderateman

on Oct 30, 2007

Good article gid, the sad fact today is where children are available to be taken advantage of, there will be predators there too. How can anyone really screen someone that has not been caught yet for child abuse? We could put all teachers through an exhaustive battery of psychological tests before they are allowed to teach young children, but imagine the cost? Even then a few would sneak in under the radar.

Gideon MacLeish

on Oct 30, 2007

but don't blame the barrel for a few bad apples.

There are more bad apples than you know, steven. As applies to the US foster care system, i would have to say cases of abuse are grossly UNDERreported. In fact, having known literally well over a hundred foster care children over three different states as I was growing up, I would have to say incidents of physical abuse were pretty nearly universal in those homes; incidents of sexual abuse (again, in my own empirical experience) were well in excess of 50%. Most of these were either not reported out of fear or the children were branded liars by their social workers who didn't want the burden of having to place a whole house full of children.

The truth is, sexual predators do deliberately put themselves in positions where they can have access to children. And the foster care industry is the perfect place, as was oprah's school in Africa.

just john

on Oct 30, 2007

I think more of her because she did actually spend some time over there instead of just writing the check. However, it is still more or less a publicity stunt.

I think the fictional Forest Gump said it best, "there's only so much fortune a man really needs, and the rest is just for showing off".

foreverserenity

on Oct 30, 2007

Well said and I agree with your points here. It is happening every day in schools here in America and all over the world. And as is seen, it happens even in schools where everyone would think it would never happen, namely in Oprah's school.

Screw Oprah, the entire shebang was an exercise in philanthropical vanity. If she's so worried about little black kids getting a decent education, she can open up a school in South Richmond, or DC, or Detroit, or LA, or any number of American inner cities where entire generations of her own countrymen are going to utter waste.

I've read that she wanted to begin that type of school here but there were so many stumbling blocks to her doing it the way she wanted. And I've also read that eventually she will do the same thing here. She isn't the only one who opens schools though, Andre Agassi is involved in schools he opened in Las Vegas and his is doing pretty well.

I give them credit for even trying and achieving what seemed impossible feats. The elementary system is something that is in need of so much overall and they should start first with the teachers they do employ.

It seems almost a gloating of the fact that something went wrong at Oprah's school and that is sad. The principal did the wrong thing by doing nothing and that's always a bad thing!

lifehappens

on Oct 30, 2007

Gee, isn't anyone going to blame Bush for this?

Cedarbird

on Oct 30, 2007

Gee, isn't anyone going to blame Bush for this?

Sure, why not? I mean, he's blamed for everything else, so here goes:
This is all George Bush's fault. Shame on him.
Yeah, that's all I've got.

On a more serious note, why put the blame on anyone but the perpetrators? I mean, no one, not even the almighty Oprah, could have seen this coming. Could they? She was just trying to do a good thing. It went badly, as good things are wont to do. As for the argument that she should put her money towards children in America...there are, in fact, opportunities for people living in America. Maybe they don't always see them, or take advantage of them, but they do indeed exist. Additionally, I just want to say that there will always be bad people who find a way through the system. It's a tragedy that these horrible thing happen to innocent children, but unless we want Orwell's 1984 to come into effect, there is no way to effectively monitor people. The best anyone can do is punish offenders when they are caught. It's sad, but also true.

Dr Guy

on Oct 31, 2007

I mean, no one, not even the almighty Oprah, could have seen this coming. Could they?

Actually, yes they could. It is one of Gideon's points. It is one thing to have good intentions, but to not follow through - and in this case a healthy dose of oversight was called for and needed, but not done - then those intentions are just spitting into the wind.

The fault was not with Oprah for her intentions, but for her myopia in thinking that the world is made up of Little oprahs instead of the variety of humans that actually inhabit it.

Jythier

on Oct 31, 2007

Are we sure she didn't design the school and fail to oversee it for the purpose of children being abused? I've always thought she had an evil look to her... and Oprah's favorite things episode fuels the fires of greed by showing you all these neat gadgets that are unpractical and cost so much only Oprah could buy them...

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