|
A Lighthearted Look at Family Services Origins As many of you know, various funding sources consider an agency’s longevity to be a virtue. In order to promote our self-interests, we have, on occasion commissioned Dr. Thad Lee Inerror to conduct research "proving" that Family Services quite possibly has a longer history than the competition. It is, of course, unlikely that Dr. Inerror’s research showing that the effigy mounds on the Beloit College campus were representative of agency programs will be surpassed. Nonetheless, the connections between the agency and the Constitutional Convention are quite, well, curious. The insight for this connection came from the following observation: If you take the year the agency was incorporated in Wisconsin (1935) and add up the digits, you get the number 18. However if you subtract the number of non-prime digits in 1935 (that would be one) from 18, you get seventeen. Hang on to that number. Now, if you take the street address – 423 – and multiply the digits together, you get 24; however, you must divide the sum by the number of multipliers, which yields an eight. Finally, take the number of parking spaces in the parking lot on a sunny day; that would be eleven. However, since two are handicapped, for no apparent reason you need to subtract two from eleven, which yields nine. Since, Rod and Cindy are always in their spots, subtract another two spaces, leaving a sum of seven. List these numbers and you get 1787 – the year of the Constitutional Convention. Lesser scholars would rest at this point, but we shall push on. The Practical and Intellectual Origins of Family Services I know that some of you are curious how anything that could have happened in Philadelphia in 1787, even if true – which it is not – be connected to Family Services? Well, please recall that the majority of information we have regarding the convention is from the 600 page account kept by James Madison. In general, he is the authoritative source for much of what is known regarding the Constitutional Convention. Turns out, once the convention was over, James Madison drove home, which as you know, he was from that city to the north of us. Due to a snow storm, he had to stop for the night in Beloit. It would be stretching things to say that James Madison spent the night at the Aldrich House, the same house that Abe Lincoln did 72 years later. Regardless of where he stayed, Madison mislaid one of his journals, which then ended up in the archives of Beloit College. Hidden away for years – perhaps because they were stored in two file cabinets, one labeled "truly fictitious facts" the other fictitious true facts – were the notes Mr. Madison took from the meetings of a sub-committee of the Committee of the whole, known, apparently, if not fondly, as the Committee of the Tangential. What follows may be based upon very much of those highly suspect notes of Mr. Madison. Recall the problems with the articles of confederation – this would be the setup for all that follows – the states were stumbling under a burden of unpaid expenses from the War of Independence – tension was increasing among the states, there were simmering threats from Great Britain; conflicts with the Spanish over land, uh, we wanted -- in general there was a growing sense that the forces harnessed in the revolution would subsequently fragment the fragile confederation and would lead to the so-called Balkanization of America. This was not a time of great confidence in the future. Mr. Farnsworth Roosevelt – who was not in attendance -- said it well, although not quite as succinctly as a Roosevelt of a later generation
In other words, the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. This, of course, is not only stoicism warmed over (that it is our ideas of things that create our emotions, and hence our subsequent dismay) but it is actually at the origins of something called cognitive behavioral therapy. This therefore represents some semblance of proof that consideration was being given -- even at that time -- to the importance and need for mental health counseling, a program we happen to offer this very day. Such are our origins. Of course, the fear experienced was intimately connected to financial issues. As James Madison really did indicate: It was seen that the public debt rendered so sacred by the cause in which it had been incurred remained without any provision for its payment. Clearly a mechanism for fiscal responsibility, such as… say,… a debt management plan was required. The Convention’s Committee of the Whole saw this as enormously important and formed a sub-committee of Means and Ways, which determined that a further sub-committee (named the Constitutional Convention’s Committee on Credit Crunch Strategies and Solutions (or CCCCCSS ) was formed. The brilliant concept of debt management plans as well as the abbreviated CCCS moved on and ended up here in Beloit. I should note that I am not at liberty at this time to comment on the recent rumors that treasury secretary Paulson has been consulting with our CCCS staff regarding plans to deal with the current national debt. So it goes. This confederation/federal thing was really a challenging problem- The theme of the potential for abuse of the smaller states by the larger states was prominent in most of the discussions; indeed this concern is in part why Rhode Island refused to even participate in the convention. These were significant issues, they were fundamental concerns over the exercise of disproportionate power and control; particularly economic controls but also involving restricted access to other entities; backed by the threat of violence/invasions - of course we know this as the power and control wheel of domestic violence. This concern began the evolutionary process of government funding for domestic violence programs such as ours. As you may recall, pirates were a not insignificant issue at this time as well. Safety was an illusion, venturing from home was a journey fraught with trepidation. What was needed was a consolidated response that could coordinate a response to those victims. There is, of course, no evidence that Pierpont Portland Porter, an unauthorized delegate from the State of Alaska – who happened to stop in, said it best when he might have said "the perverse and perfidious predation by privateers and pirates positively preempts peace, which is the principal positive pursuit of people. As a result of his perfectly profound pronouncement, Peter Paul Pierce referred the issue to the Committee of the Tangential. They ultimately recommended the formation of SARPPPP, which then was known as the Strategy for Addressing Rapacious Predators, Privateers, and Pirates. Thus the origins of our own Sexual Assault Recovery Program.… As the convention wore on through the hot summer months, it became apparent that Dr. Franklin was struggling to function independently. He required more and more assistance. On one occasion he noted that it was increasingly difficult to follow the arguments of others, let alone follow his own. As a result he took to writing his comments out before hand and enlisting a rotating schedule of aid from others to read his prepared text to the assembled convention. Thus, in spite of his increasing infirmities and because of timely and appropriate forms of practical assistance, Benjamin Franklin was able to continue his routine and, perhaps, most importantly, continue to function as a contributing individual. This arrangement – bringing in assistance to the degree necessary to maintain the prior quality of life – is the model for the Home Companion Registry. Indeed, it is probably a justifiably unknown fact that the acronym, BHCR actually stands for Benjamin’s Helpful Care Registry. As the heat continued, so did the sticking points, if not the controversies. Repeated votes were taken and much committee work consumed in efforts to determine such things as representation in what would become the House as well as the term limit of the President. It became apparent that many of the disagreements were not based in matters of principal, nor even on matters of self-interest, but instead represented simply problems in communication and, to put a gloss on it, personal emotional regulation. It appeared that several committee members were having difficulty preventing the stresses of their personal lives from intruding upon the work on the task before them. This issue was referred to the Committee of the Tangential, which determined after intense discussion, that a further committee was needed to address such problems. This committee termed the Committee for Enhanced Association and Productivity or EAP for short was formed. Finally, those of you impertinent enough to track closely this presentation, will note that no evidence has been offered substantiating the claim that the Transitional living Program, Youth2Youth tobacco prevention and CASA programs were indeed formed at the Constitutional Convention. This is because their origins are more properly traced to the first 13 proposed amendments – more precisely The Bill of Rights, rather than to the Constitution itself– but that is a story for another day. Dr. Thad Lee Inerror prefers to believe that he received his Master’s Degree in Anthropology from the Old School For Social Research (York) and his Ph.D from Savesyoumuchtime University, one of the earliest internet degree mills to do infomercials. Dr. Inerror’s interest in the Constitutional Convention arises from his desperate search to discover some area of academic expertise. Documents that he has attempted to pass off as credible include:
|