I wrote yesterday about steps being taken in Kentucky to improve the lot of children in foster care in the state, and added a suggestion for urging your state to follow suit.

Today, it's South Carolina in the spotlilght, as Gov. Mark Sanford appoints people to his Children in Foster Care and Adoption Services Task Force, a group he created to find ways to improve the foster care and adoption systems in the state.

If you're in South Carolina and want to get involved, write to the governor's office to voice support for the effort, then find out what you can do to help make the changes happen.

There's trouble in Kansas, where a social worker and the foster parents of eight kids are accused of smoking pot during a home visit.

Holey-moley! (Notice I avoided the classic "Holey smoke".) How stupid are these people? In addition to the other 7 kids, there's a 17-year-old foster child in the house, and they're toking up on a regular basis -- sometimes even WITH the 17-year-old? Sheesh.

And for a very interesting take on the climate that surrounds issues of children in America, kids caught in the foster system especially,this post from a blogger called Prairie Guy sums things up well, but suitably with an uncomfortable pinch.

Taking from the CNN show "The Situation Room" a segment centered on a correspondent's reactions to the Michael Vick dogfighting hoopla that's been hitting the news like trapped miners, Prairie Guy is outraged over the outrage.

Not that dogfighting doesn't horrify the socks off him and everyone else ... not at all ... it's just that it all begs the question he poses simply and eloquently: Where is the outrage for our kids?

His list of questions --- Where is the outrage WHEN kids are abused, neglected or killed by parents, WHEN the foster care system lets them down, WHEN kids age out of the system never having had a chance for a family? -- is backed and followed by numbers and hard facts, and his plea for attention ... for outrage on behalf of the children ... should be heard.

If nothing changes... by the year 2020:

Nearly 14 million more reported cases of child abuse and neglect will be
confirmed;

22,500 children will die of abuse or neglect, most before their fifth
birthday;

An additional 9,000,000 children will spend some time in foster care

300,000 more children will age out of our foster care system unprepared
to become productive members of our socety

99,000 former foster youth, who aged out of the system, will experience
homelessness.

Yes, Prairie Guy was a foster child. His blog is titled "Reflections of a Foster Youth from one who spent 18 years / 16 moves in this dreadfully broken system".

Read him and learn, and wonder, too, why dog fights prime the media outrage pump in ways abused children don't.