Ethical Obligations Toward Children

Do your part for region's food banks

Times are good and times are lean for the food banks that serve Acadiana as well as the rest of the state.

The state government is giving, in the form of a new personalized license plate that will raise money for food banks around the state. But the federal government may be taking away two important nutrition programs that help the hungry.

We'll leave to your judgment the question of the proper role of government in social programs that target social problems like hunger. But most of us will agree that we as individuals share an obligation — religious, moral, or ethical — to help neighbors in need. We can sidestep the troublesome ideological debate by digging into our pockets to give to FoodNet, Second Harvest or other local nonprofits that provide food to those in need.

The Louisiana Legislature passed a law this session to create a personalized "Feeding Hope" license plate that will cost $25 above the normal fee for new plates. It's awaiting Gov. Bobby Jindal's signature. The money will go to the Louisiana Food Bank Association. Sponsor Juan LaFonta, a representative from New Orleans, said the idea was to make up for some of the recent cuts in state support for food charities.

The news on the federal front isn't quite so cheerful. Natalie Jayroe, the director of Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, wrote in a column on this page recently that two programs are under consideration for cuts.

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program helps low-income seniors. In Louisiana, 68,000 of them get a box each month with food selected to meet the nutritional requirements of older people.

The Emergency Food Assistance Program is means-tested and provides food to low-income people at no cost for short-term relief. Food banks need and are grateful for their donors, Jayroe said, but this one federal program provides 28 percent of the food that goes out through the 240 local food charities.

Jayroe said cuts here could keep the agencies from meeting the current needs, let alone any additional demand that results from cuts in food stamps and other nutritional programs.

We all know how uncertain the economy has been the last few years. We all know about Louisiana's high poverty rate.

But you may not have heard a couple of statistics from Second Harvest, which serves as a sort of coordinator for food banks in 23 South Louisiana. One says that about a fifth of its 2010 clients were households in which someone had or had recently lost a managerial or professional job. The other is that food stamps last about half a month for client families that include either children or senior citizens.

From Michael Jackson to "Bieber Fever," Where is the Ethical ...

Two years ago on June 25, Michael Jackson passed away. At the time, his death signified a renewed interest in and awareness of the adversities of child stardom. In her eulogy to Jackson, actress Brooke Shields detailed their close blond which she attributed to a childhood lost.

In her book on the child star, O'Connor describes the disgust, pity, and ridicule with which people commonly associate young entertainers. The media is replete with "E! True Hollywood Story" style documentaries of child entertainers whose lives have gone askew. Stories of substance abuse and suicide abound, and the deaths of such actors as River Phoenix, Jonathan Brandis, and Brad Renfro attest to the dangers of young stardom. There are also the ambiguous young deaths of entertainers such as Heath Ledger and Brittany Murphy, which further perpetuate the notion that Hollywood endings are not always of the fairy tale variety. When these tragedies occur, psychologists with no ostensible connections to these entertainers frequently appear on television spouting off psychiatric diagnoses and facts. This all begs one question. Where is the ethical psychologist?

Psychologists have always been looked to as having high ethical obligations to protect individuals. We are consulted in any number of fields, with the aim of our inclusion ensuring safety, and sound mental health. Then why have we so carefully removed ourselves from engaging in dialogue on ethical issues in the entertainment industry? This may mean dealing with "big business" and that our services may be rendered such that corporate puppet masters utilize us to protect themselves from scary words like "liability." The notion of such consultation itself poses a plethora of vulnerabilities. Yet, as we consider ourselves advocates for human rights, it appears hypocritical that we are not more entrenched in mental health studies and treatment of media victims, ranging from the young entertainers themselves to the consumer .

tween saga actor, Robert Pattinson. The British actor was hit by a cab during a filming in New York; unsurprisingly, it was as he was navigating through hoards of screaming young fans and paparazzi. The mayhem had become so intrusive that video footage shows the young actor essentially being shipped in a method analogous to produce; from a heavily tinted vehicle swiftly into a locked trailer. While Pattinson is a young adult, we can only imagine (and have often seen) the impact of equally proportionate fame for young entertainers.

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