Proud of My Dad

Meet my dad

The Honorable Ben W. "Bud" Childers
County Court at Law #1
Fort Bend County, Texas

Isn't he a cutie for an old man? He's mostly grey because of my brother Jason, I am sure I had nothing to do with any of it....at all.

Wednesday, I got a call from my dad. He was at the airport headed to Washington D.C. to go to a conference on a new grant program that he is trying to get funding for in his local court system. He was chosen by the State of Texas to be a representative for this lateset venture. As you can tell, my dad is a judge and he really loves his job.

I do hope my explinatation of the situation is accurate, but in a nutshell.....He saw a problem in the system where people that have mental problems whether it be retardation, schizophrenia, or other mental issues come into court, have their hearing or trial and are found guilty, sent to jail then don't get the medical care or medicines they need while serving their time, and then are back on the streets doing random loopy things again. It becomes a vicious cycle. There are some people in the world that aren't ok and need special attention to help them gain a sense of normalcy. There are many sides to this 1) it costs tax payers a lot of money to have someone represent these repeat law breakers, send them to jail, and all that comes with the expenses just to repeat the process again once they are back on the streets and 2) The current system doesn't benefit us or the people that can't always help themselves.

We all understand you can't make these patients/felons take their daily medicine to make them a socially acceptable human but we have to start somewhere in making our system more functional. I guess I should find out more on this program my dad is trying to adopt before I go posting like I know what I'm talking about. Either way I know that it's a good thing, a good program that helps people that need help. It's a system that makes things a little more just.

Isn't that a world we all want to live in? People helping others out, fighting for causes for the benfit of others, educating ourselves to make things a little more just?

I'm proud of my dad. He saw a problem and has taken the initiative to try and better it. He saw a possibility for grant funding and is taking the steps to obtain it.

Good luck to my daddy-o, I hope he learns a lot at his conference so he can come back and make a positive change.