EDITOR’S NOTE: Recently, a woman I’ll call “Janet” met with me for more than six hours to discuss two court cases in which she’s involved. One is a Family Court case involving the welfare of a child, while the other is a Probate Court case involving the welfare of that child’s great-grandmother. Names and case-specific personal details in the stories below have been changed in order to protect the identities of the innocent people involved.

Unlike other middle-age Americans who find themselves caring for both young children and elderly parents, Janet’s status as a member of the “sandwich generation” is unique. Rather than simply care for her almost-seven-year-old granddaughter and her octogenarian mother at the same time, the 40-something woman who once earned six-figure income as manager of a high-end fitness center/spa in a posh St. Louis suburb finds herself fighting for both of them in separate cases at the St. Louis County (Mo.) Courthouse. After years of legal wrangling, she now finds herself on the verge of bankruptcy, having thrown everything she had into the effort to save the two most important people in her life.

“Sometimes I feel like that movie is my life,” said Janet, referring to “Changeling,” a 2008 film in which a grief-stricken mother takes on the Los Angeles Police Department to her own detriment after it stubbornly tries to pass off an obvious impostor as her missing child. Unlike the movie, however, Janet’s child isn’t missing; instead, her granddaughter is on the verge of being taken from her family permanently. In addition, her mother has, for the most part, already been removed from her life.

SAVING A GRANDDAUGHTER

Janet’s most-pressing concern is the fight to keep her granddaughter, a little girl for whom she’s been the primary caregiver during most of early life, from being placed up for adoption — possibly by total strangers. In less than 10 days, a court hearing could determine whether or not she succeeds in the fight that begun in earnest 15 months ago.

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Less than three months after he had received a positive performance review from his superiors at the St. Louis County (Mo.) Department of Health, Keith Gladney was fired Dec. 23 from his job as an animal control officer. Thanks to information I obtained today via the Missouri Sunshine Law, I learned his firing was something of an unusual — albeit rare — event.

Why should anyone care about the firing of Keith Gladney? Several reasons exist. For example:

1.Keith Gladney is the brother of Kenneth Gladney, the St. Louis man thrust into the national spotlight Aug. 6 after he was allegedly beaten by a group of thugs from the Service Employees International Union at a South St. Louis County health care town hall meeting hosted by ultra-liberal Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.). Video shows what happened to Kenneth Gladney after SEIU thugs found him selling conservative memorabilia outside the event at Bernard Middle School in South St. Louis, then judge for yourself whether allegedly is a term that adequately describes the beat-down.

2. Keith Gladney publicly criticized St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch and St. Louis County Counselor Patricia Redington for dragging their feet when it came to charging the individuals allegedly involved in the beating of his brother. Later, he joined a nationwide chorus of conservatives appalled by the fact that the duo — formerly known as the St. Louis version of an Obama “Truth Squad” — filed only ordinance violations Nov. 25.

3. Keith Gladney joined a nationwide chorus of conservative appalled by the fact that, on Nov. 25, Redington filed only orordinance violations — not felony chargees — against his brother’s alleged attackers.

Now, back to the issue of Keith Gladney’s firing.

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The symbol of our judicial system is the blind folded lady liberty holding the scales of justice in her hands.  In St. Louis County it appears she may be peeking.

On October 9th, 2000, Patricia Redington, a newly appointed St. Louis County Counselor showed such dedication to her job, that she opened the office on the Columbus Day holiday in order to file assault charges against Republican candidate Bill Federer.  This is in contrast to the way she handles the, typical case and the way she is handling the case of Democrat SEIU members pounding a businessman.   St. Louis area patriots smell a rat and show no signs of letting up until justice is served.

Realizing that workers can lose their initial zeal for their jobs, we can understand why Counselor Redington now says that despite what she did for Federer, her typical time to get charges written up and filed is six to eight weeks.  That is unfortunate for Federer who had an election in four weeks and might have appreciated a delay.  He lost his election as voters had to choose between throwing out Gephart and voting in a guy under a legal cloud and media scrutiny.   The respected author, historian and family man just might be mentally unstable considering he had in fact, been charged with a crime.  Redington, by the way, is a Democrat.

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Henry Hill: You know, we always called each other good fellas. Like you said to, uh, somebody, :You’re gonna like this guy. He’s all right. He’s a good fella. He’s one of us.: You understand? We were good fellas. Wiseguys. See, it’s the highest honor they can give you. It means you belong to a family and crew. It means that nobody can f#@% around with you. It also means you could f#@%  around with anybody just as long as they aren’t also a member. It’s like a license to steal. It’s a license to do ANYTHING. As far as Jimmy was concerned with Tommy being made, it was like we were all being made.

Many in America have been surprised by the magnitude of the Tea Party uprising, but perhaps none more so than Barack Obama.  As people are inclined to do when threatened or under pressure, the President fell back on what he learned cutting his teeth in Chicago politics; brute force.

Recall the summer of 2009.  Traditional values-loving Americans, all over the country were so shocked by the bailouts, cap and trade and other big government expansion programs that they took to the streets in numbers never seen before.  Liberals were shocked that the political right had figured out the playbook of the political left.  As the Congressional Summer recess got underway, leftist politicians found their town hall meetings packed to the rafters with angry people asking tough questions.  As the bloggers streamed the footage and America got a nearly daily dose of another Democrat politician getting hammered, it became clear that the left was unprepared.

Protesters were disparaged as “tea baggers” and Astroturf, but name-calling is not what they do in Chicago.  It might be over the top to say the President himself ordered the hit, but what about his people?  What he said of the conservative protestors is “If they are going to hit us, we will hit them back twice as hard “.  Within two days, a black man distributing patriotic flags and buttons, found himself struggling under a tremendous beating from as many as four separate assailants.  The Service Employees International Union members got the President’s message.  The SEIU members sporting their purple people beater shirts picked their first victim.  Perhaps most disturbing, the attack began with a black union member coming unglued on a black man who did not share his leftist political beliefs all the while calling him a “nigger”.   Is this a hate crime?

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