Chapter 10 Planning a White House Family Meeting

How many meetings are held in the White House a year?Not counted.But there is one meeting that is only held every ten years. This is the White House family meeting established by President Roosevelt when he was in office.The White House meeting is not necessarily held in the White House, but because it plays a special historical role in the development of American society, it is named the White House Family Meeting.Its central theme is very clear, which is to study American family issues only once every ten years. This is not to say that the family issues in the United States are not important and only meet once every ten years. On the contrary, American politicians are clearly aware that, In their so-called free world and society where everyone is equal, family issues play a vital role in the development and existence of the country, and American family issues have undergone some qualitative changes in a period of time. The changes in China are the future and hope of American society.Therefore, no matter whether the Republican Party or the Democratic Party is in charge of the White House government, the once-in-a-decade family meeting with the participation of the entire United States must be held without any change.It seems to be even more important than the show of hands on Capitol Hill and the presidential election every four years, because it is related to the direct interests of every citizen, and it is even more related to the future of the United States of America.

In 1980, Li Wanruo served as the director of the Social Welfare Department of the Los Angeles County Government in California. This year happened to be the time for the White House family meeting to be held again.The White House referred the matter to California, and Los Angeles is the largest county in the state.Of course, such a meeting should be done by the Ministry of Social Welfare, which has direct business affairs. Who will the Ministry of Social Welfare ask to take on this important task? Lily, this matter is none other than Lily.Her leadership and organizational skills, as well as her concern and understanding of family issues, coupled with the fact that she is an advisor to the Federal Department of Social Welfare appointed by President Ford, made her the most suitable candidate!The Los Angeles County government thinks so, California nods with satisfaction, and the White House fully agrees.

As a result, Li Wanruo was pushed to a peak of performance in the American political arena.At this time, she was in the prime of life, radiant and radiant. It is necessary to say a few more words about the family issue in the United States, which is directly related to Li Wanruo's later participation in politics.It is common for women all over the world to love their families and children, especially women in the oriental cultural background.As early as when she was engaged in social work in the county hospital, Li Liuruo had hardly left to deal with various families in the United States.What impressed her most was the phenomenon of teenage mothers caused by the so-called freedom and openness of the whole society to pursue bliss and enjoy life.In the United States, the law stipulates that you can get married at the age of 18, but there are no regulations restricting free cohabitation. Therefore, the cohabitation phenomenon of teenagers and girls under the age of 18 is very serious. More and more illegitimate children are born in society.And the birth of these illegitimate babies poses many problems.One year before Christmas, a small life with an umbilical cord on the top of a ten-story building was thrown out of the window by its mother, who was also a swallow, in the black district of New York. Later, the baby was found A red and white plaid dishcloth was tied around the mouth of Xianzi's mother because she was afraid that the baby would cry, and the scene was horrible.A medical institution in the United States once conducted a survey, and every year there are more than 2,200 abandoned babies in hospitals across the United States.And that doesn't include illegitimate babies found in places like motels.

Li Guiruo's first job after setting foot in the American society was related to such abandoned marriages.Americans pay attention to human rights. The Constitution stipulates that the rights of every born citizen, no matter what background he is, will be inviolable. However, many babies abandoned by their biological parents or abused children need to be managed and cared for.At that time, Li Wanruo was busy rescuing unattended babies and abused swallows all day long.Since many young and weak lives who have suffered so much cannot stand any kind of torment, saving and raising them has become the busiest and most fatal thing for civil servants like Li Wanruo who are engaged in welfare work.

Once, Li Wanruo and the others learned that a child of a family in a certain community had been abused, and the police had rescued Xianzi from the brutal biological father. After Mi, they had to find a foster family as soon as possible. Unexpectedly, the adoptive father of the baby's new family was extremely irresponsible. The child was not only injured in many places, but also seriously ill and could not receive medical treatment. In the end, Li Wanruo and other staff from the Social Welfare Department had to take turns to take care of him.But what problem can this solve?As a government agency, they couldn't continue like this, because they always looked after the children like this, and no one else took care of everything else, so they had to find a foster family again.

But within a few days, the new family suddenly called Li Wanruo and the others, saying that the child had died.This is not bad!The baby in charge of the Ministry of Social Welfare actually died. Once the matter is hyped up by the media, it will have a negative impact on the image of the government’s social welfare work in the entire region. At the same time, it will also cause extremely serious damage to the work of government officials elected by voters. as a result of. what to do?A dead child cannot be resurrected.When Li Wanruo learned about this incident that night, her first reaction was: she must not let the incident itself become passive, otherwise not only her own job would be affected, but even the face of the county chief and governor would be damaged.It is said that the night in Los Angeles is always full of fear, and this night is especially frightening for Xiao Wanruo.According to the usual practice, such an explosive event will attract all the media's attention at dawn the next day, and the whole of California and even the United States will play it up.Li Wanruo's first thought was that the media must not be of help.After obtaining the consent of the supervisor, Li Wanruo immediately connected the call to the editor-in-chief of the most influential local "Los Angeles Times", and notified him of the whole process of the critical incident, and targeted the government and society. Relevant measures to be taken by the welfare department are stated.The next day, the "Los Angeles Times" was the first to publish the critical incident, and discussed some measures the government would take to effectively prevent the possible consequences of some journalists with ulterior motives.Later, when the county government and the governor of California learned the truth, they greatly praised Li Wanruo.

Being praised reflects Li Wanruo's ability to adapt to situations, but she is not in a relaxed mood. The poor baby flashed back in her mind for a long time, especially when she became the director of social welfare work in the local government. more and more.This is Western-style modern life, and the various problems it reveals from the gap in the family will have to warn all the people and the government to realize the fact that if the family relationship is not handled properly, the society will face imbalance and the development of the country will be hindered by this. Almost every presidential candidate will regard improving family issues in American society as an important part of his campaign platform. This is also the original intention of urging the White House government to hold a White House family meeting every ten years since World War II.Ten years may be just the beginning of the whole process of a couple's marriage, but for a society, ten years of family problems may already be very serious.

With his outstanding achievements in social work, Li Wanruo took on the rare role of organizer and moderator in 1980 when another ten-year White House family conference needed to be held.Both its topics and its conclusions will be accountable to the White House and the President. The burden of the meeting is obvious.Li Wanruo felt both honored and pressured after accepting the preparation.She has been political since she was a child, and she is keenly aware that this is an excellent opportunity for her to make a real appearance in the American political arena, and she must seize it.But it is not enough to rely on myself as a weak woman with an oriental face.Therefore, she mobilized all her wit and brains, and invited prominent figures from the Los Angeles County government and California, as well as influential experts on family issues in the United States, to form the chairman of the meeting with herself, and Li Wanruo personally served as the executive director of the meeting.

From a grassroots background, she understands that officials and experts are not enough to make the White House family meeting effective.Since it is a family issue, ordinary family members must participate.Therefore, Li Wanruo broke the stereotype of the previous White House family meeting, and specially invited family members of all ethnicities and classes to enter the meeting, and summarized their opinions into the core content of American family issues for discussion and research.Because there were teenage mothers who were old enough to be a congressional senator for decades and young enough to still be in school, the meeting was particularly intense and distinctive.The open and free-style debate almost turned the entire meeting into a forum where various points of view were refuted.As a meeting organizer and moderator, you often have to act as a mediator of various viewpoints and a mentor with foresight.When the sharp-tongued people from all walks of life who participated in the meeting saw that the executive director of their meeting was a charming and graceful little oriental girl, they would inevitably ask Li Wanruo some problems.At this time, you cannot escape, ignore, or remain silent. You must face it, subdue it, and use all your wisdom and talents.

CEO, you keep telling us in your topic that we should pay great attention to the randomness of marriage and divorce. This topic is not in line with the spirit of the United States.You may be an oriental at heart, so you can't really understand the way we Americans strive for the spirit of freedom.Some people wanted to make Li Wanruo unable to step down. But my dear lady you are wrong, I understand not only what the true American spirit of liberty is, but how to understand it. Li Wanruo kindly told her self-righteous young American compatriots: What is our American spirit of freedom?It should be the spirit of grasping things correctly, the spirit of trying to understand other people's opinions, and the spirit of considering the interests of others and one's own interests without prejudice.At the same time, I also know that to remember the spirit of freedom, we should pay enough attention even when a sparrow falls to the ground, otherwise it may be a disaster.The spirit of freedom is also the spirit of Christ, which taught mankind two thousand years ago a lesson it never learned and never forgets.In that kingdom of liberty, the greatest and the least are treated as equals, without discrimination...  

Lily, it seems that you are not only an amazing organizer, but also a philosopher!The person who asked the question was surprised. Li Wanruo smiled lightly and said: This is a passage I remembered from my ancestors when I was studying for a professional master's degree in social work at the University of Washington more than ten years ago. Haven't you heard of the most outstanding justice in the United States in this century? · Is it the name Hande? Many participants shook their heads. Then I can tell you again: the explanation I mentioned above about the spirit of freedom was held in Central Park, New York City on May 21, 1951 by Mr. Lenny Hand, the greatest judge in American history. The speech at the rally, the theme of which was to commemorate "I am an American Day", happened to seem to have a lot in common with our common concerns now.I still remember Justice Hand’s advice on the freedom we Americans pursue: the pursuit of freedom does not mean a ruthless, unrestrained will, let alone freedom to do whatever you want.That is the denial of freedom and directly leads to the destruction of freedom.A society in which people do not recognize the controls that should be exercised over their liberty will quickly become a society in which only a few ferocious and brutal people have liberty.We have learned this the hard way! Lily, what a wonderful presentation!There was warm applause at the venue. Li Wanruo smiled modestly: These are not my words, I just recited an assignment from the previous class. Maybe Hand and you are both right.The discordant participants also came over to hold Li Wanruo's hand at this time.However, they expressed reservations about their views.You won't object, will you? certainly.Li Wanruo shrugged and said frankly: That is not the spirit of freedom in the United States.And it does nothing for this meeting. agree!The palms of both sides made a loud sound in the air. Li Wanruo is very pleased with the emergence of such different viewpoints and even fierce disputes, because this is what she and the chairmen of the meeting most want to achieve. Viewpoints, it is impossible to accurately solve the family crux of American society.At the meeting, she proposed and emphatically put forward the idea that family problems must be based on prevention, that is, to apply the idea that one or two of prevention is better than one catty of treatment that Americans are used to, and to deepen the national awareness of putting prevention first. The main keynote of this White House family meeting is to focus on the discussion and research on the outstanding issues of the four major families in American society.The first is the phenomenon of baby parents caused by the cohabitation of boys and girls, the second is the employment of middle-aged women, the third is the abuse of children and the elderly, and the fourth is the legality of homosexual families. As soon as the theme of the meeting was raised, it caused a sensation in all walks of life. There was a big discussion about practice as the only criterion for testing truth that was being carried out in the great socialist eastern country on the other side of the ocean.Li Wanruo, who was at the center of this intense discussion, felt the unprecedented strong impact and surging passion overlooking the American society every moment.This will undoubtedly reserve the strength and courage, experience and insights for her to successfully enter the American political arena in the future. The tense and powerful White House family meeting reached a consensus on issues such as curbing domestic violence, preventing juvenile delinquency, training and education for young mothers, and providing more employment conditions for middle-aged women in society. The plan provided many basis and suggestions, and also achieved two historic results. First, the family formed by homosexuals was legalized. maternity leave for men.These results were later passed by the Congress to form laws. Could Li Wanruo not be proud of the establishment of these two historic bills?Apparently, through the organization process of this meeting, she has been recognized by the White House for her active social skills and accurate judgment on the problems of American families, as well as her use of the White House meeting to make the whole society pay attention to the increasingly serious family problems from bottom to top. The host, President Carter, who was born in the Democratic Party, appreciated her family meeting report. After it was sent to the White House, Carter was very satisfied after reading it, and specifically proposed to meet the meeting organizer.Later, the large photo of President Carter shaking hands with her taken by the reporter of the Associated Press was published in all important newspapers in the United States. After the White House family meeting, Li Wanruocha was appointed by President Carter and became one of the fifteen members of the National Council on Adult Education.This is the only representative from California to enter the conference since 1970.This committee mainly provides recommendations for the National Adult Education Act, government policy and funding allocation.All proposals go directly to Congress and the President, and are implemented by the Ministry of Education after approval. Community colleges in the United States offer adult education courses in the evening, where you can learn culture, typing, cooking, painting and so on.Program funding comes from student tuition fees.The government's English language training courses for new immigrants are funded by the federal government, so community colleges are also happy to cooperate.Although the United States has popularized education, there are still many illiterates, including many new immigrants, whose English expression skills cannot meet the needs of daily life and work.Therefore, Li Wanruo asked the government to increase funding for adult education to help more unemployed people learn English well, and then learn a skill. Li Wanruo himself is a first-generation immigrant, and has personally experienced the hardships of a new immigrant becoming a citizen.She thinks it is necessary for the government to provide funds to set up English education courses so that more people who intend to become citizens have the opportunity to learn English.This suggestion was adopted by the government.At present, in American adult schools and community colleges, many new immigrants have benefited a lot from the citizenship-based English courses.The English classes for adults are thriving everywhere, and Li Wanruo said that she is particularly gratified by this. Accepting the appointment of the president broadened her political horizons and at the same time aroused her enthusiasm for participating in political decision-making.Although this kind of work and the administrative work of the Ministry of Social Welfare both serve the public, their nature and scope are quite different.Li Wanruo felt in her heart that participating in national policy formulation was challenging and attractive.A right policy can benefit millions of people in the long run.The appointment of the President furthered her ideal of benefiting the public. Someone once predicted that a Chinese woman with an oriental face in California would soon become a rising star in American politics.This prophecy later became a reality.