Pound Pup Legacy

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1166465704187490.xml?starledger?nnj&coll=1

Newest ally in corner of the young and abused

Child Advocate on quest to heal system
Monday, December 18, 2006
BY SUSAN K. LIVIO Star-Ledger Staff

Fractured skulls. Brain bleeds. Blunt force trauma.

No matter how heinous, the child abuse cases pediatrician Elizabeth Susan Hodgson saw didn't repel her; they challenged her, "forever sending me to the library," she said.

Early in her 25-year career, her pursuit of child abuse cases became "the wave that always lapped upon my shore," she said -- or, as her colleagues teasingly put it, "the dark cloud" that followed her.

To the inevitable question -- How do you do this? -- Hodgson explains: "At least if (the abuse) gets recognized, you can make it a little bit better. You can make the healing start to happen."

Healing New Jersey's neglected child welfare system is Hodgson's latest mission.

Gov. Jon Corzine tapped the respected but politically obscure physician to be the Child Advocate, the state's watchdog for children, for the next five years.

The job requires her to ensure the Division of Youth and Family Services investigates maltreatment and protects children from harm as the division enters its third year of sluggish reforms monitored by a federal judge.

The position gives her access to otherwise confidential information about private and public agencies serving kids and the power to sue them if they are failing.

On the job for a month, Hodgson, 58, of Princeton, said she is interviewing candidates for key jobs, meeting people in the child welfare field and assembling her to-do list. Last week, she made her first appearance before a legislative committee to discuss how her office will continue monitoring a residential center for children with developmental disabilities that has come under scrutiny.

Those who know her work say it has helped save children, punish abusers and mend families.

I'm a firm believer that One Person can change the life of millions.  Since this article was found in my local newpaper, how can I help direct the author and doctor to our little web-site?  I suddenly feel like a mom with a mission to defend the natural rights of all children born into this world.  [But I know I would lose interest once I was expected to prove my sincerity!]   

Wouldn't it be Great News if PPL can be viewed by the state of NJ as a missing-link  to the chain of information that's already Out There wanting to be read by those who need to learn about the real needs of a child?  Seems to ME too many generations have passed, and far too many family members have been severed and served a sickening injustice, thanks to the laws that protect the willful hands and life of a stranger, more than the innocent life a child had to leave behind.  Names, dates, identities can be altered on paper, but  the loss of a baby forever changes a Mom.  Since The Right to Life isn't shared by all children, I'm eager to learn what will happen Next...