Freedom Is Never Voluntarily Given

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed."- Martin Luther King Jr. 

What a powerful statement!  I can't believe that it took me 45 years to come across it, so yes, I can vouch for the fact that it is never too late to learn.  I believe that this statement can also be applied to change.  Not everyone likes change.  Change can be uncomfortable, it may be complicated, it requires time, work and it gets us out of our comfort zone.  But... 

Change is necessary for us to evolve into a better society. 

We are all valuable human beings and deserve dignity and respect.  Your neighbor with the broken fence may not have the money to fix it.  The person begging on the street may have a mental disability.  The woman that cut you off in traffic may be in a hurry to the hospital to see a loved one.  All of us have at least one thing in common: we all come from a specific mother and a father.  We do not choose our parents and our parents do not choose us.  There has to be a bigger purpose - why. 

It is my believe that our children are given to us so we can grow as human beings, our children magnify our faults and give us the opportunity to work on our own personal development to become better selves, more responsible, understanding and caring people.  Raising our children gives us the opportunity to see our parents as human beings, understand the struggles they went through raising us, and forgive them for the mistakes they have made; it gives us an opportunity to reconnect with our families and build stronger relationships with those around us. 

Children by watching us get to learn how to behave, but also get to learn how not to behave, not because we are to tell them what to do, but because they are watching us and they will eventually get to choose who they want to become; which traits of mom and dad they would like to adopt and which ones they would like to erase.  Our children by growing up with their parents get to know themselves and get to mold themselves into who they want to become. 

During this DFPS case I have learned that many DFPS providers don't read DFPS's affidavits.  What do they know that most of us don't?  

To answer this question I will be paraphrasing Step 4 of HEART called: Gaining Respect and Dignity. They know that looking at a person's life through someone else's eyes, in this case from the perspective of the DFPS's affidavit, is if you are looking at that person's life from the wrong end of a telescope.  The view makes it look small, inadequate and worthless.  Human beings worth is not decided by the existence of success and failures, by their mistakes and achievements, and the person cannot be defined by the written opinion of another. 

This brings me back to the change as the next necessary step to fight your oppressor: either it is a personal internal change or the change in the system.

Since we are not talking about changing a single person, but the entire system, the change factor is extremely important.  When we by appearance "voluntarily" give up our rights the oppressors are unwilling to give up their hold of our freedoms.  It took me years to feel confident in myself again.  It took years to understand that I can't predict what others will say about me and I can't stop them saying anything.  The third time is the charm.  I am older now.  I am more calm.  I have less fight in me, but more knowledge, more understanding, more tenacity, more tolerance to pain and more time...  I have learned to use my time wisely and to slow down and go back to the beginning.  And that's where I found: WHY it's so easy to take our children. 

It starts in the beginning.  Any lawsuit begins with a Petition.  Every one of my DFPS nightmares have started with the Petition for Termination of Parental Rights. 

The law has to change! Texas Law cannot continue to operate outside The US Bill of Rights and outside international human rights.  Parents and children have the natural right to be together. 

Change has to be demanded by the oppressed.  And I ask that all the parents come together to demand the change of this law, so no child can be taken for hearsay accusations and minor infractions.  Promote Innocent Tears Act. Let's make DFPS reform into reality!