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What if a white male single dad had a 10 month-old, adorable baby boy. Say his wife had died tragically and he had no extended family….The dad was in the army, and he was deployed to Afghanistan. The dad had nowhere for his baby to go while he was deployed… what would happen? I bet that baby would not go to foster care.
Blogger Julie Kang really shifted my thinking on the case of Alexis Hutchinson, the 21 year old Army Specialist who did not show up for her deployment to Afghanistan because she had no one to care for her 10 month old baby Kamani. Julie writes, “…hello! I think there would be an even BIGGER furor if a single dad (and for the sake of argument, make him a single white dad) had his child taken away, not because he was defecting, but because he needed more time to find another caregiver during his deployment. Everyone, including aforementioned conservative talk show hosts, would be clamoring to care for that baby.”
Julie is riffing off the fact that the site Courage to Resist reported “A few conservative websites have taken notice of growing public outrage over this case. Some have attacked Alexis because she is young black woman who got pregnant soon after basic training, yet she chose to remain the Army! Another blames her because Kamani’s father is not a part of their lives. Some incredulously ask if we would support a young male soldier in a similar situation (yes—we would). Alexis’ only real mistake was believing the military’s “family friendly” recruiting sales pitch.” (and, Morra’s note, the Hyde Amendment that rules that no federal funds be used to pay for abortions means she would have had few options had she wanted to terminate the pregnancy, anyway. She had to keep the baby, and she had to provide for the baby. She is mother and provider.)
Let’s take a step back: 21-year old Alexis Hutchinson is the parent of a 10-month old boy. She is African American. She is a single parent. She is a cook in the Army, and she had orders to deploy to Afghanistan on Nov. 5, but she stayed home and did not show up to move out. When she showed up to the Base the next day with her son in town, she was arrested and her son was taken into custody. She is now on base in Georgia, waiting to find out her fate, and her baby is with his grandmother Angelique Hughes. Latest reports have Alexis Hutchinson facing a possible court martial. Her son is thousands of miles away in California.
“According to the family care plan of the U.S. Army, Hutchinson was allowed to fly to California and leave her son with her mother, Angelique Hughes of Oakland. Angelique says she realized she could not care for her grandson, since her other duties include caring for a daughter with special needs, her ailing mother, and an ailing sister, and working long days running a daycare.
The Army then gave Hutchinson an extension of time to allow her to find someone else to care for Kamani. Meanwhile, Hughes brought Kamani back to Georgia to be with his mother.
However, only a few days before Hutchinson's original deployment date, she was told by the Army she would not get the time extension after all, and would have to deploy, despite not having found anyone to care for her child.
Faced with this choice, Hutchinson chose not to show up for her plane to Afghanistan. The military arrested her and placed her child in the county foster care system.”
According to a story on NPR, the estimated 85,000 people in the Army who are single parents are required to have a caregiving plan, for when the custodial parent is deployed or unavailable to care for a child. When Alexis Hutchinson’s learned her mother was unable to be Kamani’s backup caregiver, Hutchinson says she advised her Commander of the change in her care arrangements and asked for time to figure out a new plan. Hutchinson states her Commander basically said to figure it out in the next 24 hours, because deployment had been moved up to November 5. If she couldn’t find an alternative in time, Kamani would have to go into foster care.
How does a parent of a baby weigh the decision whether to break the law, or leave her child in a dangerous situation? It’s an unconscionable decision, and I imagine must have been a lonely one.
