Your Ineptitude Is Paying Off

When I look at the classic behaviors of business behemoths and governments, I am always at a loss to put words to the disdain I have for big-spending that serves to feed its own monsters; or rather, perpetuates top-heaviness in administrations. The waste associated with the concept of “building a bridge to nowhere” has always caused me personal pain, having come from an area in the Deep South in which funds were scarce and jobs were few; a time frame in which women were mainly secretaries, bank tellers, or teachers. These were the only positions that would have entered our opportunity mindsets back then. Domestic abuse was often conveniently overlooked, because, well; "However would we make it on our own, anyway?"

A hypothetical corporate expenditure of $600,000, for example, to have a small "study" summit (between private planes, security, facility rentals, food, and entertainment) for one weekend to review a report or quarterly meeting leaves me breathless. What could this $600,000 do for women in the U.S. in the form of microloans? This amount could provide 30 families with a chance to thrive. What is the dollar-value redemption of enabling underprivileged and oppressed individuals to become part of the economic solution than to remain a scourge people regard as a “problem child”?

I am looking forward to those who can (through big data) begin to pull together the cultural and socioeconomic cost of gender biases in the family court systems and other areas in which discrimination is obvious, and how that affects the overall health of the economy. Even higher is the cultural cost of an environment of fear, which can hobble the futures of parents and children for generations. More and more, fiscal irresponsibility in spending is becoming more trackable, and conversely, how these resources can be better spent is rapidly illuminated by modern data collection and data visualization.

Indeed, the ineptitude and gross misbehaviors in those we all had to trust years ago in both political and pseudo-political arenas are tracing their own grisly-grey silhouette reveal, and now, their true tolls and impacts can be assessed in ways that were not conceived of before. Small moves, or regional efforts, can work miracles in communities and embody modern-day “billboards” for efficiency and effectiveness. I’d like to see the “Ten Thousand Villages” (tenthousandvillages.com) approach along with microloan programs for oppressed and disadvantaged groups in this country, and I’d like to see those statuses be redefined employing what is having the most impact both financially and culturally. Family court abuse is a modern-day holocaust in which the financial losses are only exceeded by the emotional and cultural (and generational) losses.

I know many previously middle-class females with educations that had their worlds completely obliterated by family court injustices, vexatious litigation, (which is actually domestic abuse by proxy) and judicial and court officer corruption that rears its ugly head in all states. These (mostly) women don’t fit into a defined category that qualifies them for benefits, yet their own country isn’t free enough to protect them from predatory spouses and ex-spouses. In no other area of the judicial system can you be tried for the same “crime” multiple times, other than in family court. In no other judicial system is a woman commonly assumed to be lying if she alleges abuse as she is attempting to escape her marriage. Frequently, her punishment for speaking out is the loss of custody of her children. A recent Washington Post article detailed this travesty.

Exposed waste and ignorance can create a golden light-filled opening in the Universe for the truest of passions. In my financial and power-status weakness, I can find true grit and advocate for others. Today, I plan to do at least one thing for someone who has been devastated by an unfair system and say at least one encouraging word to someone who has lost everything, including their very blood.  The economic impact of these small moves may yield exponentially positive effects beyond the stuck-in-glue measuring tools of the past. What is the value of freedom to be a mother over generations? The actual cost to society of a once-prolific career terminated by domestic legal stalking? Your ineptitude is paying off because while some are blind to the value-diamond in a bleak landscape, those of us who can actually see can feel it reflecting on our faces.