Denied Failing Cordelia Parental Love And Parental State Theft In Los Angeles Juvenile Dependency Court

Climbing the Broken Judicial Ladder continues the author’s journey of exploring the heartbreak and loss of first adopting Cordelia with severe reactive attachment disorder (RAD) in Washington state and then of nearly losing her to the draconian and confused child welfare legal complex in Los Angeles. In this third volume of his Denied! Failing Cordelia trilogy, Cambridge climbs the broken California judicial ladder from the California Court of Appeals (Second Appellate District) based in Los Angeles to the California Supreme Court. Cambridge concludes that in appeals relating to dependency cases, the ladder is broken for parents seeking to advocate for themselves and for the true best interests of their children. Policies relating to child welfare are flawed, Cambridge argues, because of the preemptive and prejudicial response to the issues raised during the detention of children. As with his two earlier books, Cambridge explores issues connected with how best to parent his adopted daughter and advocate for her needs in the context of a dependency case. Cordelia’s reactive attachment disorder would surface throughout the judicial struggle as would the author’s own struggles with Asperger syndrome. Each would feed negatively into the overall trauma and drama of the author’s unrelenting quest to reunite his “forever family.” Cambridge believes that dependency proceedings are ill-equipped on many levels to elicit a proper understanding of RAD or of the therapeutic parenting needed to address it. Cambridge believes that adoptive parents of children with special needs need to be understood by more sympathetic social workers and by therapists trained in attachment disorders. Cambridge’s persistent efforts to reunite his “forever family” would leave him increasingly isolated as he climbs the judicial ladder. Based on his experiences, Cambridge explores areas for reform in Los Angeles dependency proceedings and evokes Shakespeare’s King Lear by arguing that social workers need to “see better” and that the Los Angeles Juvenile Dependency Court needs to encourage a broader understanding of the issues raised through more effective legal advocacy from assigned dependency lawyers. Cambridge argues that parents should be allowed to address the court directly. Cambridge also relates how he and his daughter have found many positive and healthy ways to heal in the years since their dependency case ended. Much trauma could have been avoided if those around them had “seen better” and had recognized the value in their dramatic and loving adoption journey.

The Cankered Rose and Esther's Revenge begins the author's dramatic journey of adopting his teenage daughter with severe attachment issues in Seattle. The heartbreak of then seeing Cordelia "stolen" by the efforts of his former wife and the child-welfare legal complex in Los Angeles, alongside that of the trauma of being denied during efforts to reunify with her are each foreshadowed here. Issues surrounding adoption trauma, parenting children with reactive attachment disorder, and the author's own struggles with Asperger's syndrome will be his constant companions on this perilous journey of adopting, losing, and then trying to reunite with his beloved daughter. In this and subsequent volumes, the author will also be questioning the ability of the child-welfare legal complex and the Los Angeles Juvenile Dependency Court to understand the nature of damaged child attachment or the therapeutic parenting needed to heal children with "special needs." Ultimately, each would be as responsible for "failing Cordelia" as the breaking of the violent waves for the shattering movement of the rocks on the beach.

Pride and Legal Prejudice is the second part of a trilogy covering the author’s efforts to parent and advocate for his adopted child with severe attachment issues in both Seattle and Los Angeles. Readers will be able to see here how his tenacious efforts to help his daughter would end up being denied or invalidated by the child-welfare legal complex in Los Angeles. How the author fought with pride against the legal prejudice that he and his daughter endured during their traumatic three-year dependency court case in Los Angeles will become the focus of this second volume. The author will conclude that reunifying successfully with one’s child in any dependency case needs to involve more than just being willing to complete an assigned case plan or keeping up with visitation demands. Beyond these worthy goals, Cambridge will be exploring the many ways in which a strong and motivated legal team that is just as intent on the goal of reunification as the parent, is of paramount importance. Cambridge believes that while he was able to retain his parental rights at the end of their long case, he and his daughter could have forestalled much lasting trauma if their assigned social workers and therapists had been able to “see better” and if the presiding commissioner of his case had been less prejudiced. The author was left still trying to reach his troubled daughter when their dependency case ended. Readers will be able to judge the extent to which he succeeded or made progress in his final volume.

Whether on the seashore or on the trails between clumps of Haworth heather, let us walk with Anne Brontë and listen to her discussing the kind of truth “that always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it.” Join us in our academic and personal celebratory reflections on “gentle” Anne’s “core of steel,” sense of family duty, and enduring courage. Anne was the most underrated and least known of the three Brontë sisters for the better part of a century after she died in May 1849. Walking with Anne Brontë adds gravitas and personality to the growing chorus of academic and other voices honoring the youngest Brontë sibling’s inspirational life and literary legacy.

Whether on the seashore or on the trails between clumps of Haworth heather, let us walk with Anne Brontë and listen to her discussing the kind of truth “that always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it.” Join us in our academic and personal celebratory reflections on “gentle” Anne’s “core of steel,” sense of family duty, and enduring courage. Anne was the most underrated and least known of the three Brontë sisters for the better part of a century after she died in May 1849. Walking with Anne Brontë adds gravitas and personality to the growing chorus of academic and other voices honoring the youngest Brontë sibling’s inspirational life and literary legacy.

A truly heartfelt and engaging book...The writing is insightful and thoughtful... detailed research really and truly make this a memorable and important read. —Pacific Book Review This anthology will be a welcome addition to the body of work about Anne’s short life and her enduring legacy. [It is] worthy of inclusion in libraries and archives. (Recommended) —US Review of Books Thoroughly researched and very thoughtfully and carefully edited. —Dr. Laureen Nussbaum (childhood friend of Anne and Margot Frank) “Meeting” Anne Frank: An Anthology captures the stories of some twenty of us who have walked with Anne Frank and her sister Margot as kindred spirits over the course of the many decades that have elapsed since both girls died from typhus and Nazi cruelty in Bergen-Belsen in 1945. None writing here actually “met” or knew Anne personally, but we have “talked” to her and “journeyed” with her kindred spirit. Anne Frank unites us at a time when so much of the world is riven by the familiar and divisive themes of partisan politics, anti-Semitism, and prejudice. You will, though, be meeting those who did know Anne’s “most adorable father” Otto, and they have kindly shared their vivid stories in this volume. You will be seeing how we cherish not just the loving father-daughter relationship that has come to mean so much for many of us, but also the inspiration of Anne’s patient mother Edith and her “ladylike” older sister Margot. Several of Anne’s surviving school friends also appear in the journeys undertaken by a number of my contributors. In the years since she died in 1945, Anne Frank has become variously the sister, mother, wife, daughter, girlfriend, or best friend to each of us writing for this anthology and to many in the wider world. We honor the happy and tragic story of Anne’s brief life and recognize the existence of, at least, “two Annes” in both her sense of fun and mischief and in her growing self-awareness while in hiding. Anne was only a child while she lived freely at Merwedeplein 37 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and barely a teenager when she died in a Nazi concentration camp for the simple “crime” of being Jewish. Anne wanted to “go on living after [her] death” in February or March 1945, and I hope we have honored her lasting wish in this work.

This report--a joint effort of the Federal Reserve's Community Affairs function and the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program--examines the issue of concentrated poverty and profiles 16 high-poverty communities from across the country, including immigrant gateway, Native American, urban, and rural communities. Through these case studies, the report contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of poor people living in poor communities, and the policies that will be needed to bring both into the economic mainstream. It is not the intention of this publication to explain poverty causation. Instead, the goal is to add texture to our understanding of where and how concentrated poverty exists, by studying new areas and by interviewing local stakeholders, including residents, community leaders, and government representatives, to understand how concentrated poverty affects both individuals and communities. The report begins with "Concentrated Poverty in America: An Overview" (Alan Berube) and "Introduction to the Case Studies" (Carolina Reid). It then presents the following 16 case studies: (1) Fresno, California: the West Fresno neighborhood (Naomi Cytron); (2) Cleveland, Ohio: the Central neighborhood (Lisa Nelson); (3) Miami, Florida: the Little Haiti neighborhood (Ana Cruz-Taura and Jessica LeVeen Farr); (4) Martin County, Kentucky (Jeff Gatica); (5) Blackfeet Reservation, Montana (Sandy Gerber, Michael Grover, and Sue Woodrow); (6) Greenville, North Carolina: the West Greenville neighborhood (Carl Neel); (7) Atlantic City, New Jersey: the Bungalow Park/Marina District area (Harriet Newburger, John Wackes, Keith Rolland, and Anita Sands); (8) Austin, Texas: the East Austin neighborhood (Elizabeth Sobel); (9) McKinley County, New Mexico: Crownpoint (Steven Shepelwich and Roger Zalneraitis); (10) McDowell County, West Virginia (Courtney Anderson Mailey); (11) Albany, Georgia: the East Albany neighborhood (Jessica LeVeen Farr and Sibyl Slade); (12) El Paso, Texas: the Chamizal neighborhood (Roy Lopez); (13) Springfield, Massachusetts: Old Hill, Six Corners, and the South End neighborhoods (DeAnna Green); (14) Rochester, New York: the Northern Crescent neighborhoods (Alexandra Forter Sirota and Yazmin Osaki); (15) Holmes County, Mississippi (Ellen Eubank); and (16) Milwaukee, Wisconsin: the Northwest neighborhood (Jeremiah Boyle). Following these case studies is "Learning from Concentrated Poverty in America: A Synthesis of Themes from the Case Studies" (Alan Berube, David Erickson, and Carolina Reid). Appended to this report are: (A) References for Comparison Statistics Tables; (B) Literature Review: Federal Reserve System Poverty-Related Research; (C) References for Overview in Alphabetical Order (by First Author); and (D) Photo Credits. (Individual case studies contain tables, figures, and footnotes.).

A compelling case can be made that violent crime, especially after the 1960s, was one of the most significant domestic issues in the United States. Indeed, few issues had as profound an effect on American life in the last third of the twentieth century. After 1965, crime rose to such levels that it frightened virtually all Americans and prompted significant alterations in everyday behaviors and even lifestyles. The risk of being mugged was a concern when Americans chose places to live and schools for their children, selected commuter routes to work, and planned their leisure activities. In some locales, people were afraid to leave their dwellings at any time, day or night, even to go to the market. In the worst of the post-1960s crime wave, Americans spent part of each day literally looking back over their shoulders. The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America is the first book to comprehensively examine this important phenomenon over the entire postwar era. It combines a social history of the United States with the insights of criminology and examines the relationship between rising and falling crime and such historical developments as the postwar economic boom, suburbanization and the rise of the middle class, baby booms and busts, war and antiwar protest, the urbanization of minorities, and more.