Nathan Deal on dead and damaged kids: It’s time for 'able-bodied' grandparents to step up
Gov. Nathan Deal on Thursday appeared before a Capitol campus gathering of the Georgia chapter of the Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition. (Reed wasn't there.)
In a 28-minute address, the governor reviewed his accomplishments in the realms of criminal justice, job creation and education. Deal spoke not a word about the religious liberty bills that were a primary focus of the gathering.
That said, the governor didn’t leave without throwing a large chunk of red meat into the audience. The problem of dead children and DFACS has bedeviled governor after governor. Ask Roy Barnes.
But Deal added this defense into the mix:
"I know, more and more, when we have bad cases happen, we start asking questions of, 'Why did that happen?' And too often, people want to point the finger at state government, and say it was because DFACS didn't do this, or DFACS didn't do that.
"Now, I've got the press in the room today, and I'm sure we're probably going to hear about this comment from them…"
Translation: “I’m sorry I’ve put you to sleep. But it’s time to wake up and pull out those notebooks.” To continue:
"Now, I'm going to step on even more toes with this one. Why is it that we always arrest the mother? And nobody ever asks the question: Where's the father of this child? Why didn't they step in and do something? The vast majority of the time, the answer is, well, we don't know.
"Well, it's about time somebody started asking the question. I just asked the question. Y'all help me. We're going to ask that question. We're going to find out why it is that government becomes the only answer to things that, historically, had been the responsibility of the greater family unit."
The governor elaborated briefly on his way out. He said he had no particular case in mind. “I’m just saying there’s a broader scope of people we should be calling on to help solve these problems. We shouldn’t all expect a DFACS worker to solve all those problems,” Deal said.
About the Author
Jim Galloway, the newspaper’s former political columnist, was a writer and editor at the AJC for four decades.
