Waiting For a Door to Open

Guilt is the barometer of human behaviour. The conscience that seems to swell and fill your head.

Others may see me as a train wreck but I have never lost it. I have never stumbled across the mute button on my conscience. My moral centre remains intact. I can say that at least.

Judge Ye Not

 

 

‘Do not judge,’ a voice inside my key nurse urged.  This was received wisdom and she was beginning to question it. She was beginning to believe that the avoidance of judgement was a dereliction of reason.  ‘Do not impose your values on them,’ she had been ordered by some smug, self-aggrandising nurse manager.  But what if that was exactly what they needed: a framework of values and expectations within which they could live successful and productive lives?  What if, by withholding judgement, she was denying them that?  Imprisoning them in a state of perennial victimhood.  She remembered an aphorism she had once heard: ”Evil flourishes when good people do nothing.’  They were doing nothing and evil was most certainly flourishing.

Addendum: those who believe that the desire to keep ‘at risk’ children with their families whenever possible is confined exclusively to left wing social workers should take a look at this: 

Promotion and maintenance of contact between child and family

15

(1)Where a child is being looked after by a local authority, the authority shall, unless it is not reasonably practicable or consistent with his welfare, endeavour to promote contact between the child and—

(a)his parents;

(b)any person who is not a parent of his but who has parental responsibility for him; and

(c)  any relative, friend or other person connected with him.

It’s an excerpt from the Children’s Act, 1989.  Now, remind me which party was in power then.  Cyclical amnesia strikes again.

Addendum 2: Oh, and ‘plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose‘.