CPS is Child Protective Services in most states. It’s got to be one of the hardest jobs on Earth, to be honest, because the people working there generally can’t win; if they go after someone who’s innocent, they’re traumatizing both parents and children, but if they ignore obvious evidence of a problem, then a child is being harmed and they are standing idle doing nothing.

It’s complicated by the fact that since children are involved, the standards of evidence and whatnot that they work by is generally lower than the standards police have to live up to. So they can do things a regular cop might lose his job over, which is by necessity but also grants them fearsome powers.

I’m sympathetic to them especially because they CAN be used as a tool to abuse and harass people you don’t like. If you had kids in the house, Arnold, and I really hated you, it would take relatively little for me to get CPS knocking on your door, and how are you even going to react to being told, “We have information suggesting that you’re abusing your grandchild (or child), may we come in and look around and ask you some questions?” I think even a seasoned gruff take-no-prisoners guy like you would probably, as they say, be taken aback to say the least at basically being expected to prove your innocence, but that’s what they’d be looking for you to do.

I could commisserate with you a little more fully on this issue if you were to tell what a CPS person is or does. For all I know, it could stand for “Chief Purchaser of Shit”, or something on that scale. The meaning of acronyms is best explained rather than guessed at.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

Er. . .you mean Melissa Huckaby was arrested for the murder of the child Sandra Cantu, yes?

Now I’m really back in it!

I could only do this b/c of support from my buds. I don’t forget you, Dean!

What’s worse is that many men take the historical, and often noble, urge toward what we call “chivalry” to preposterous heights that don’t even apply to the modern world. Many of those “rules” were counterbalances to conditions that no longer apply today, or rarely apply. We often allow women to get away with simply awful behavior–indeed, sometimes we even enable it–simply because they’re female and are therefore seen as entitled to be abusive, selfish, and even violent.

Once you’ve seen enough of this firsthand, or worse, been the victim of it, you know it’s true. And what’s worse is that some fools will call you a baby and tell you to “stop whining.” Like a man who’s fighting for nothing but to be an integral part of his children’s lives and who wants to be with them is doing something WRONG, like there’s something WRONG WITH HIM.

It’s kind of a fun one-two punch on the kids issue too: if you don’t spend time with your kids, you’re a bum who ignores them. If you want to spend time with them, you’re kind of weird and psychotic and doing something wrong. Once you’ve experienced this, or seen a man you care about be subjected to it, you know exactly what this is like.

I’m often amazed that more mothers, sisters, aunts, and just plain friends with men in their lives seem totally unwilling to even look reality in the face on these issues.

These days I’m more passionate about the issue than ever.