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"The Parent Trap": My teen pal gets published in Mother Jones!

By GottaLaff

We love seeing bad parents getting punished. Why don't we care how that affects their kids—like me?

— By Cassie Frequels

Awhile back, I was proud to post a few pieces by my very talented teen pal, Cassie. TPC readers were unanimous in their praise for each and ever one of them.

She and I have been corresponding back and forth, forth and back about a new piece she's been working on, and how Allen McDuffee was giving her an intro to Mother Jones magazine.

Guess what?

Although I never blurted anything out on national television that led to the arrest of one of my parents, I think I may know how 6-year-old Falcon Heene and his brothers feel as their dad begins a 90-day sentence for his role in the infamous "Balloon Boy" hoax. I am sure they blame themselves, and I know they're worried about what will happen to them after their father (and then their mother) goes to jail.

My mother was incarcerated more than seven years, so I’ve often written about this topic on my blog. [...]

My dad left town when I was six and I have never seen him again.

Congratulations, Cassie! You earned this one!

Now please, go read the whole piece. You won't be sorry.

TPC teen contributor challenges Balloon Boy coverage

By GottaLaff

Six year old Falcon Heene with his father Richard

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

I've previously posted the observations of a remarkable high school student. Her insights were, and are, unique and poignant. (Please read them here, here, and here.)

Today she sent me an e-mail, and has graciously allowed me to share it with you. She wrote it to a radio host who she calls about once a month as the teen correspondent.

What a remarkable young woman:

I probably won't make it to the chat room or onto the phone to your show tonight because it is "ornament night" here with my host family and I will be covered in glitter glue and fluorescent paint all evening. But I want to put in my 2 cents worth on the sentencing of Balloon Boy's parents.

I've just looked at the news story on 3 different sites, and everyone is focusing on whether the punishment is enough. I've heard you refer to this as America's punishment fetish.

No one has said whether the kids are in foster care now, if they're staying with other relatives, or how their parents' sentence will affect them. And THAT is what matters.

My dad left town when I was six and I have never seen him again. My mom went to prison when I was 11 and I have only seen her twice. The state of Texas may be glad they got a minor league drug user (and sometimes dealer) off the streets, but they never gave me or my brother a second thought.

That's not exactly true. The county took an interest in whether or not I was physically safe. But only after I wasn't.

I am becoming an academic superstar in spite of all of the people who think I am a loser because of who my parents are. I love school and I love learning and I have found my own way -- but huge numbers of kids with parents in jail never graduate HS and certainly don't graduate as Texas Scholars with ambitions for the ivy league.

I call the family I live with my host family and I pretend that I am an exchange student because I hate the way foster care sounds. But some of the other kids who live here are in foster care. The only difference is that my minister facilitated this "placement" and the county signed off.

The other kids here came through the county first. We are all VERY LUCKY that we're with a great family and the worst humiliation here is that we'll all have our hodge-podge home-made ornaments photographed and saved.

The Heenes are lousy parents and idiots, but why is the media so obsessed with the conditions of their sentence and don't even mention what the next 10 or 12 years will be like for their kids? Will they be together?

The parents will have supervised probation from the state, but will they also have supervised parenting? Will the Heene kids have a chance to make their own Christmas tree ornaments with glitter and feathers and green poster board?

Am I the only one asking those questions?

We need a whole lot more teens like this one. I am proud to count her as a friend.

"The past year is the first one in my life that has been entirely violence-free"

By GottaLaff

I like blogging on Saturdays, because it's the pace is a little slower, and I get to post things that I ordinarily wouldn't have time to during the week.

I have a 19-year-old friend who wrote some very poignant and noteworthy thoughts that we would like to share with you:

From the time I was born until a year ago, I was a victim of family violence. Today I am a survivor.

I've survived with the help of counselors, friends, the family I've been staying with, and my writing.

The past year is the first one in my life that has been entirely violence-free.

Almost every adult in my family has hit me at one time or another, most of them repeatedly. Until a year ago, I was always afraid to get my family members in trouble, and I am still not completely ready to go public with my story. But I do want to publish my poetry anonymously and encourage any other victims to seek help. The first night without family is the hardest, but having a home where you're not afraid is definitely worth the newness.

I wrote this my first night with friends, and today I'm not a stranger, fully a person, sometimes still crying, and I've redefined family.

Pretty room in a pretty house.
My things are here.

I am a stranger.
Half here
Half crying
Half a person
Less than half
a family.

A vacation visit
but I can't go home.
Home is gone.
Family gone.
Now I am gone.

I wrote this a few days later, but have since made peace with my changed family circumstances.

"You do as I say!"
"But not as You do."
"I WILL make you listen."
"Forever I do."

Bruises and welts-
Hurt through and through.
Family gone now.
Forever gone too.

If you can't even imagine a violence-free year, it's time to get help. Your community can be there for you.

Woven to make a net
The arms of the community
Catch us when we fall
Or when we are pushed.

Woven into a hug
The arms of the community
Hold us when we hurt
Or when we are hurt.

Woven with bonds of love
The arms of the community
Hug us until we
Can hug them back.

The young author is the very definition of bravery, the very essence of survivor, and one who knows profound pain all too well and is learning to conquer it. She is someone who I truly admire.

Thank you for allowing me to post this. I hope it will circulate widely enough to be seen by so many who need to read it.

You have provided others in your situation with inspiration: an outline of the courage it takes to confront devastation, the knowledge that there are people who want to help, and the wisdom to realize they can do something about it.

Birth of a trend? Baby Obama born in Florida

Oh man, pretty soon we're going to be up to our knees in Barrys, Rockys and Obies. Will the girls be called Bamas?

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Barack Obama may have a "funny name," as he once said — but it might just catch on among the nation's newborns.

A Florida couple became among the country's first to bestow it on their child, even before most had declared the Illinois senator the president-elect.

Sanjae Obama Fisher was born at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at Hollywood's Memorial Regional Hospital to Patrick and Sasha Hall Fisher.