I’d like to share with people this experience that my wife and I recently had. It is not intended to be a bitter epilogue to this experience, or to point fingers at anyone, or to incite any strong feelings against any person or group of people. I only wish to provoke thought in those who read this and invite them to consider the path that our societal feet are on.

About a year ago my wife and I became concerned about our son because he was falling behind in his speech. We looked around and were finally able to get him in a program where he would get the help he needed from a speech therapist. They did a wonderful job, and now our son is much happier because he can finally communicate with others. His teacher strongly recommended that he get into head start next year so that he could catch up as much as possible before entering kindergarten. We filled out all the necessary paperwork and waited. After several days my wife received a call from a gentleman with a foreign sounding name; and the conversation went something like this:

“Hello, I’m ______ with Head Start and we’d really like to have your son in our class. He was highly recommended by two people.” (The two people who recommended him were his current speech coach and teacher where he was going.)

He began by the interview by asking, “Okay, how much money do you make?” My wife told him. He said, “Oh, that’s way too much money, you don’t qualify for the program. You make much more than all our other applicants’ parents. But there is another way you can still get him in.”

My wife said, “Okay, how’s that?”

He asked, “Has anyone your house ever been in prison?”

My wife answered, “No.”

Next question, “Is anyone in the home on drugs?”

My wife said, “No.”

Next question, “Is there anyone in the home who has any disabilities?”

My wife, “No.”

The gentleman said, “I’m sorry, but there is no way that your son will qualify for our program then.”

The conversation was over at this point.

I only wish to leave the readers of this with a passage from the Bible and a question. Proverbs 4:26 “Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.” What is the path that our society’s feet is on?

Anthony Leggett

? Stanfield