My re-introduction to the north

. . . so, as I was preparing for this year's legislative session, I met with several important people. You know, legislative types and their staff. I had a very interesting meeting with one particular staff person of one particular important person. Said staff person is no longer employed in that capacity. Anyway, we were meeting to discuss the child death fatality issue in Clark County. During the discussion, it was mentioned that there may have been more child deaths due to neglect that weren't readily apparent. The point that was being made was that some children may have died due to long term nutritional neglect, or unrecognized medical complications that weren't clearly the cause of death, but might have been. This particular staff person replied, "Oh, yeah, well you know those black babies don't bruise so you can't tell they were abused." My jaw dropped as I surveyed the room to see who else noticed the comment. I panned around the room to find most weren't phased. My colleague across the table from my had her jaw on the table, and one of our contract folks just stared at me as if to say, "Please don't curse her out." As we left, we were preparing to meet with Senator Washington. I softly asked the others if, when we got with Senator Washington, they could leave me alone with him for a few minutes. Confused, they asked why. I said that I was going to beat the **** out of him and see if they could notice the bruises. I miss the north so badly.

jmf