Society's Toxins, Caught on Tape

William Raspberry's column on that handcuffed 5-year-old in Florida contains an interesting reference I want to write about a little later today, if I can find the time between working on my novel, making earrings, and taking the backup child out to buy Nationals' hats this afternoon. Meanwhile, here's the paragraph that annoys me:

Society's Toxins, Caught on Tape: "My guess is that if a child bore scars of physical abuse, we'd move to intervene. But psychic wounds leave scars, too. Is there no way for the community to intervene to minimize them? Can't we provide counseling -- private counseling, not counseling that would be seen as serving the schools systems' interest -- for parent and child? Can't we look at ourselves (as so few of us did during my own childhood) and ask what godawful messages we are sending to kids whose parents are too poor, whose hair too nappy, skin too black, families too disreputable to warrant much respect from teachers -- or protection from the rest of us?"