Dear Editor,

               I'm working out of my state (with a firm that scrupulously handles

elder law issues) and was interested that your first issue would focus on a

concern I dubbed "granny grabbing."   Most people don't know there is public

as well as private grabbing when the dowry is big enough.

               One of my first connections with both false reporting of Adult

Protective Services and how it covers some nursing homes (if not doctors)

was through a call from an attorney I'd worked with in Northern

Virginia. People find the private granny grabbing really intriguing, but if they

knew about the public grabs and who gets what because of it, I HOPE they 

will be surprised and horrified.

 

       I've also called it the worst of the sandwich generation:  people working

overtime to pay taxes to agents of the state to "protect" their aging parents

and their own progeny from THEM.  What a world!  It is past time for

common sense and sanity to prevail over the current trammeling of the Bill of

Rights protections for those who are accused or "suspected."

               Your article on Tennessee's Department of Human Services (DHS)

is excellent.  I hope it will be the beginning of plenty of articles for Tennessee

lawyers, state legislators, and the public to discuss and take steps to end the

free passes for DHS and others who constructively traffic in human flesh.

               DHS is backed in this behavior by adjunct professionals and aspects

of the judicial system that blindly endorse whatever petitions DHS might offer

a court.  There is a kind of unholy backscratching never anticipated in the Bill

of Rights.

 The article is very well written. I hope it inspires attorneys to describe their own experiences and frustrations.
It matters so much for good attorneys who care but who rarely, if ever, are allowed to win on facts or law (since 
administrative agencies have their shadow systems accountability and constitutional law) to know that shared
experience and exposure of trafficking can ultimately tame such heart-breaking and home-wrecking practice.

 

Barbara Bryan
P. O. Box 8323
Roanoke, VA  24014
Email: BHBryan@aol.com