Celebrating progress

Joy Ryan, President/CEO

Our blessed United States of America is 250 years old this week! What courage, ideals, and passion it took to create this great place! How fortunate we are to live here. It is our job to continue to build this country into the best in the world…for our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and all the generations to come… so they can celebrate, too!

It is an occupational hazard for me to look at everything through the lens of “and how are the children?” In the United States, our respect and protection of children has evolved, just as everything else has. It is interesting to me when people say, “We never heard about child abuse when I was little.” That is so true. Child abuse, child sexual abuse, exploitation, and neglect were not “illegal” in a true sense until the late 1800s in the United States. Child protection laws that created a reporting mechanism and protections for children didn’t become real until 100 years later, in the 1970s. You didn’t “hear about it” because it wasn’t reported or acted on. Children weren’t protected as people in their own right.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, children were the property of the family, particularly of the father. Damaging your own livestock or other belongings was not illegal, therefore, injuring your child was not illegal. My own father’s horrible abuse in the 1920s and 30s was not illegal. As far as children with mental illnesses or neurodiverse processing, like autism, they were a threat to the community. It was the family’s job to contain the child and their behavior. If they were unable to, the only option was often poor houses or jails with other children and adults. There was no treatment, just containment.

Of course, as is true today, most families loved and protected their kids. But for those who endured trauma or mental illness, there was no understanding, there was no recourse, there were no rights.

Today, children face different challenges. Artificial intelligence, social media, sexualization of children, drugs, etc., all confront our children. But we understand them better. We learn more about brain development every day. We learn more about treatment, therapy, and medical interventions. We learn how different children learn differently.

We learn about the healing power of sharing Christ’s love.

Because children are precious.

Happy 250^th USA!

Please keep the children and staff of Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in your prayers.