Issue 7

Well, I had a busy month! In addition to playing catch up from the great flood of 2011, I have been bouncing all around the northeast section of
the country taking in all the different aspects of foster care. I have met pioneers in the industry, award winning writers, dedicated state workers
and many others excited that the magazine has passed the half year mark. Oh and I took a picture.

The leaves of autumn are changing the landscape….what about the picture? I had a whole diatribe about the change in the season and the changes
in care, but ok let’s talk about the picture.

Much like all of you I have seen all the internet interpretations of the 1% occupy Wall Street movement over the past few months. Everyone from
soldiers to hard working single moms all voiced their dismay with the government by holding up a sheet of paper stating the statistics that have
affected their lives. Some read that they had to work two jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. Others told tale of wartime struggles.
Student loans, mortgage payments and car notes all took center stage. Real life issues with real life consequences.

I sat at my desk and began to put sharpie to paper. It read: “I am the real 1%. I am 432,000 people strong, I make up 1% of the U.S. population,
BUT I account for 50%! Of the nation’s homeless population! I’ve been moved around forever, half of my people won’t graduate high school
this year, I HAVE NO VOICE, I am a foster care youth, the forgotten 1%.”

I took a picture of me holding the paper like the hundreds of online pictures I had seen. I posted the picture to my facebook fan page for the
magazine, my personal page and my twitter account. What happened next was surprising to say the least. Within moments of posting the picture I
was bombarded with “likes” and comments in support of the photo. There were hundreds of “shares” and people “tagged” the picture so many
times facebook banned any more.

There are times since having started this publication when I feel I’m making a dent, this was one of those times. As the comments poured in ONE
voice stood out, he’ll remain nameless for now.

This particular person had a stance I had yet to hear, foster kids should stop whining and start working. Now talk to any foster care alum and
you will find that hard work is not an issue. So far in left field was this idea that I felt compelled to respond.

Generally, as a rule, I try to stay out of the discussions I create online; it is merely my version of market research. As others debated this person’
s point, I watched and read, as the conversation became more volatile, I watched and read. When religion began to creep into the back and forth
of opinionated statements, I watched and read. And then the strangest thing
occurred I stopped watching and reading. Instead I dove in head first in the
hopes of protecting all that hard work that all the alums of care and I had put
in.

A fit of rage filled my fingers as they tapped furiously too slow for all the
retorts that were spewing onto the keyboard. “How dare he question our
worth or ability to put in the time to achieve our goals.” The more I typed
the angrier I got, the angrier I got the more outlandish his comments seemed
to become. Getting in a sparring match on Facebook is catamount to yelling
across the room at a tavern, nothing gets accomplished. There were points
about the fortitude of foster kids I wanted to make, statistics I wanted to
get across the wire in the hopes I could help this person see clearly. Then he
did it.

He happened to mention that aging out foster youth, should in fact, NOT
receive any help for college. It was at this point that the comments all began
to turn against him. Foster alum from all over the country began to defend
themselves and those who weren’t there to defend themselves.

What did my sharpie and I learn? Foster Care Alumni are not too be messed with. We are not victims anymore, we’re advocates. We don’t
whine, we get our point across. And, man, do we WORK!