One thing that Melissa Carter mentioned that surprised me was the fact that the first goal of the child welfare system is reunification return children back to their families as soon as possible. I guess I just assumed that if the child was being abused and neglected why would this be the first option to place the child back into the home. This made me think that possibly the process should change a little to maybe help prevent reoccurring neglect/abuse and more-so death among these children. I just feel as though the other options should override wanting to place the child back in the home as soon as possible because parents or guardians can do whatever is necessary to show a false representation that they have changed things at the home and it is now safe. This just did not sit well with me.

Melissa brought to our attention that the child welfare system only receives a lot of press when something tragic happens. This made me realize that this is absolutely true just how most news stations only present the negative this is the same scenario. Melissa notated that these tragedies only happen at a very small rate even though they could have been preventable but we as the public do not seek out the positive aspects of the system when we only hear about the negatives.

I definitely believe social policy plays up on these tragic stories to create some buzz which is ultimately for some underlying motive of a bill that might not even have the true intentions to making change in the system or even addressing or tackling the problems head on. Just how Melissa mentioned the recent stories of the children’s death and their faces being posted all around the capital only was for “show” and these children were being exploited which is really lowdown and sad that politicians play so dirty. It did not help either that this years legislative session was so short all due to the fact of campaigning purposes gives you clear signs right there that little concern was taken and none of these bills (except the GA budget bill) in the end had to be passed.

I believe the single most important thing as citizens that we can do is talk to our senators. Exercise our rights to be heard. We should not be letting up on the issue that child welfare does not receive the proper attention that it needs come legislative session times. Just how Melissa is coming out university classroom to speak with future social workers I believe it starts with us as well as future leaders to participate in lobbying and not letting up with being heard. Making enough noise and putting up a fight is bound to create change if we are demanding it in numbers by the masses of people. We also need more dedicated people like Melissa who have a passion for advocating for child safety. We as adults have a duty to protect innocent children from harm and I think us Americans have lost our moral values when it comes to this subject. Many Americans now choose to butt out of other people’s situations but when it comes to a child’s safety they cannot depend on no one else but us adults to keep them safe out of harms way.

The Frontline specials reported information regarding healthcare in America and healthcare around the world. The takeaway from these specials is that America has the poorest healthcare working system for the people by far compared to any other healthcare system around the world. Among all of the countries reported in the special, us Americans are the only ones who can go bankrupt from medical expenses or die from sickness due to the lack of health insurance coverage. The Professor Karl Lauterbach from Germany even mentions that Germany as a country understands that when an individual looses his or her job the chances of getting sick increases and therefore they do not cut off any unemployed German citizen from healthcare coverage. The Obama Administration knows just how important this healthcare reform bill really is for America. Correspondent T.R. Reid mentioned in his three points of difference between other countries healthcare systems and Americas is that for the system to work everybody must be mandated to buy insurance. The other two differences were insurance companies must accept everyone while they cannot make a profit on basic care and doctors and hospitals have to accept one standard set of fixed prices. In the 2010 overview timeline of the Affordable Health Care Act, preexisting condition insurance plan (PCIP) people uninsured for at least six months would have access to temporary PCIP in their state. Also, insurance companies would be banned from rescinding people’s coverage when they got sick. One would think that all our healthcare problems would be fixed with ACA or at least on it’s way to being fixed but recent statistics show otherwise. The Commonwealth Fund presented some recent findings from back in November 2013 that suggest Americans are still suffering from high medical expenses and many are just opting out of seeking recommended care while sick all together. The findings show people are still having uphill battles with their insurance companies due to payment matter issues or the excessive length time spent dealing with insurance paperwork. These findings prove to have unfavorable outlooks for the ACA of changing any bitter aspect to our failing healthcare system here in America. Possibly the ACA bill may have better results in the years to come and may actually make our system much better in the long haul. Until then, we wait for better alternatives or improvements to come for our health system.

The concerns of social policy are centered on human existence and the basic human needs being met. Some of the basic human needs include food, shelter, a safe environment, promotion of health, support of those unable to live fully independent lives, education, and training of individuals to levels that enable them to excel in their society (Wikipedia). My perception of believing that social policies can combat poverty after reading DeParle’s American Dream my answer remains the same which is no I do not believe only social policies can eradicate poverty. DeParle depicts a tale of African American women on welfare in the early 90s. DeParle gives a great synopsis of the welfare reform over the years in the United States and yet still to this day the tune remains the same to end welfare as we know it and to combat unemployment rates. History only repeats itself here in America. Although, I do not discount our achievements and progress we have made but in history has shown to prevail in repeating socially, economically, and the politically. The women that DeParle introduced us readers to just shows that these women were already predisposed to the lives they ended up living. These women were already disadvantaged by minimal education, children out of wedlock, and a lack of medical care just to only name a few disadvantages. The only concept that these women knew and stuck true to was survival and just making it (getting by). This is all they knew and other concepts of living such as an American Dream were not a reality to them when they were already at a disadvantage just by being African American and raised by a single African American mother. DeParle stated these women had hopes that never took shape. He mentions that these women did not depend on welfare but just looked at it as another means of getting by and making it.

Stone’s Policy Paradox accounts liberty revolving around the two sided dilemma (positive or negative liberty) of when can the government interfere with a citizens’ choices and activities. I believe DeParles’ depictions of these women prove to sway along the positive liberty side which would justify why these women need help from society because positive liberty requires literacy, education, health care, income, and physical security. In terms of liberty-welfare trade off, DeParles’ depictions of these women would place him on the “no” side of the question is there a liberty-welfare trade off. He mentions on page 74 of the book that Angie and Jewell did not think of themselves as dependent on welfare but just as another way of “hustling up some cash”. People who say no there is not a liberty-welfare trade off would mention that dependence on others is inevitable and helps to create liberty for the people who are in need of assistance. Public aid has helped these women to have opportunities that they did not automatically have coming into this world. Public aid has given these women a chance to make a better life for their children as well. Although not many public aid recipients do the right thing with their aid, public assistance is meant to create some type of equality for attainment in the pursuit of happiness and to help them to live a sustainable life.

In Obama’s recent State of the Union Address, one of his proposals was Climate Change. He mentioned that he would like to see a bill targeting climate change like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago which was The Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act of 2003 (USA Today, Allen March 7th, 2013). Their proposal failed by a vote of 43 to 55 (“Summary of The Lieberman-McCain“,n.d., para. 1). The vote was a clear sign of  a lacking care for a climate change policy. Similar efforts to gain a climate change policy failed to get an approval by the Senate in 2005 and 2007 as well (USA Today, Allen March 7th, 2013). In terms of policy analysis, some man problems from the very beginning dating back to 1997 in the Clinton administration was the lack of congressmen believing global warming to even having any truth and believing it to be a hoax (Resources for the Future, Pizer January 28th, 2003). The Bush (senior) administration deemed one proposal too costly (Resources for the Future, Pizer January 28th, 2003). Another influence to this bill getting passed was the fact that McCain retired from the Senate early 2013 (USA Today, Allen March 7th, 2013). Seeing that global warming has not been made to be a major factor in any current weather changes nationally I believe this may be a factor as well in the bills and proposals being dismissed by Congress. Also, Congressmen have issues with the cost factors with implementing these proposals/bills and they are worried about the constraints on what business sectors or organizations that will be greatly affected and might not be able to comply. I do believe the policy window has closed since one of the policy entrepreneurs (John McCain) retired from the senate. Since he was pushing for the bill I do not believe it will be able to have another opportunity to get a fair shot at becoming a law. To me personally, I find this to be a very grim reality of the world that we live in to know that we do not care about the future of the world and the generations to come after us is a very chilling reality. Sadly, I do not see there being a bill passed into becoming a law anytime soon dealing with climate change.