A Rant That Makes Me Sick To My Stomach
While talking to one of my co-workers today she asked if I had heard about that poor little boy found starved in a closet. My stomach immediately knotted up as she gave me the details. Thus the focus of my rant today.
People who know me often tell me that I'm not the sensitive, demure type. I whole-heartedly agree. I can be brash, loud, blunt, abbrasive, and often vulgar. Hey, it's part of my charm. But when it comes to children, it's a whole nuther ballgame.
Even before I was a mother, certain news stories and scenes in books and movies I couldn't take. Even in my own writing, I tend to shy away from anything terrible happening to a child, unless the story absolutely calls for it. And then I do so without getting too graphic, and I end up having to turn the computer off for a while because it really disturbs me to have to write about it. I think most people are disgusted by child abuse and neglect...but it's something that not only makes my blood boil, it's something I don't handle well.
There have been times when I've had to walk out of a movie theater or into another room if a movie I'm watching depicts violence towards a child too graphically. One example is the movie Trainspotting. I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but suffice it to say, when my friends rented it and a particular scene hit, I had to leave the room in tears. My husband thinks I'm overly sensitive...what a kick that is knowing my personality.
Even reading or seeing news reports of child abuse sends me over the edge, perhaps moreso because it is all too real. So when I heard about this 7-year-old boy who was punsished by being locked in a closet for 6 months with barely any food, I went into a Meghan-sized rant.
These "parents" decided that for some reason, their one son (who is one of 6 children, 4 of which actually lived with them) was a problem child and had to be punished severely. He'd go for a week without food and was left in the closet 24-7 to live in his own filth. When the police found him, he weighed less than 40 pounds. Yet the parents still stand by their statement that he was "only being punished." (You can read the article for yourself here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030610/ap_on_re_us/closet_boy_abused_1)
What in the hell is going on in this world? What could a seven-year-old child possibly do to provoke such cruelty in an adult, an adult who is supposed to love him unconditionally and protect him no matter what the cost to herself? These people had 6 children, 2 of which couldn't even live with them. Doesn't that point out somethig? Why were these people allowed to get away with this for so long? Didn't neighbors notice only 3 children going in and out of the house? The kid's own grandmother ended up calling the police because she hadn't seen him in "awhile." 6 months? She couldn't catch on any earlier? For Christ's sake!
I am all for the death penalty and think it is severley underused. These parents should be hung by their privates and skinned alive! But I'd settle for the chair or even lethal injection. But at most they'll get jail time and will probably get out one day. It makes me sick as a parent and as a human being.
And the real problem is, I can read the news online every day and find a different case, with similar results. Sexual abuse, physical abuse, starvation, torture...you name it I can find it. It's absolutely disgusting. Part of the problem is that in this country, people just don't care about anyone else. Your neighbor could be beating the shit out of his wife and yet you do nothing. You don't want to get involved. You notice your neighbor's child with bruises all over his face and arms, this isn't the first time. But you don't dare call child services, it isn't your place. If more people stepped up and got involved, maybe so many children wouldn't be dead at the hands of their own parents.
This little boy found in a closet was lucky to be alive. But how lucky is he? I can't even fathom what this torture has done to his mental health, let alone his physical body. And to know that your own parents did it to you...this child is far from lucky.
I don't mean to preach...well, maybe I do. I know that I wouldn't hesitate to get involved if I knew something was going on with a neighbor's child. Or anyone for that matter. Hell, I called the cops on the neighbor's teenage son and his friends a few weeks ago because I heard a girl screaming and someone yelling to her to get in the car and lock the door, while a boy kept screaming, "We had a pact!" I don't know these kids, all I know was I heard a frightened girl and a potentially violent boy. So I called the cops. I'll never know exactly what the situation really was, but if it could have escalated into violence, I'm not ashamed to admit I called the cops. My husband called me a busybody. Maybe so, but it's who I am. I couldn't live with myself if that girl ended up beaten or shot. Could you?
While talking to one of my co-workers today she asked if I had heard about that poor little boy found starved in a closet. My stomach immediately knotted up as she gave me the details. Thus the focus of my rant today.
People who know me often tell me that I'm not the sensitive, demure type. I whole-heartedly agree. I can be brash, loud, blunt, abbrasive, and often vulgar. Hey, it's part of my charm. But when it comes to children, it's a whole nuther ballgame.
Even before I was a mother, certain news stories and scenes in books and movies I couldn't take. Even in my own writing, I tend to shy away from anything terrible happening to a child, unless the story absolutely calls for it. And then I do so without getting too graphic, and I end up having to turn the computer off for a while because it really disturbs me to have to write about it. I think most people are disgusted by child abuse and neglect...but it's something that not only makes my blood boil, it's something I don't handle well.
There have been times when I've had to walk out of a movie theater or into another room if a movie I'm watching depicts violence towards a child too graphically. One example is the movie Trainspotting. I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but suffice it to say, when my friends rented it and a particular scene hit, I had to leave the room in tears. My husband thinks I'm overly sensitive...what a kick that is knowing my personality.
Even reading or seeing news reports of child abuse sends me over the edge, perhaps moreso because it is all too real. So when I heard about this 7-year-old boy who was punsished by being locked in a closet for 6 months with barely any food, I went into a Meghan-sized rant.
These "parents" decided that for some reason, their one son (who is one of 6 children, 4 of which actually lived with them) was a problem child and had to be punished severely. He'd go for a week without food and was left in the closet 24-7 to live in his own filth. When the police found him, he weighed less than 40 pounds. Yet the parents still stand by their statement that he was "only being punished." (You can read the article for yourself here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030610/ap_on_re_us/closet_boy_abused_1)
What in the hell is going on in this world? What could a seven-year-old child possibly do to provoke such cruelty in an adult, an adult who is supposed to love him unconditionally and protect him no matter what the cost to herself? These people had 6 children, 2 of which couldn't even live with them. Doesn't that point out somethig? Why were these people allowed to get away with this for so long? Didn't neighbors notice only 3 children going in and out of the house? The kid's own grandmother ended up calling the police because she hadn't seen him in "awhile." 6 months? She couldn't catch on any earlier? For Christ's sake!
I am all for the death penalty and think it is severley underused. These parents should be hung by their privates and skinned alive! But I'd settle for the chair or even lethal injection. But at most they'll get jail time and will probably get out one day. It makes me sick as a parent and as a human being.
And the real problem is, I can read the news online every day and find a different case, with similar results. Sexual abuse, physical abuse, starvation, torture...you name it I can find it. It's absolutely disgusting. Part of the problem is that in this country, people just don't care about anyone else. Your neighbor could be beating the shit out of his wife and yet you do nothing. You don't want to get involved. You notice your neighbor's child with bruises all over his face and arms, this isn't the first time. But you don't dare call child services, it isn't your place. If more people stepped up and got involved, maybe so many children wouldn't be dead at the hands of their own parents.
This little boy found in a closet was lucky to be alive. But how lucky is he? I can't even fathom what this torture has done to his mental health, let alone his physical body. And to know that your own parents did it to you...this child is far from lucky.
I don't mean to preach...well, maybe I do. I know that I wouldn't hesitate to get involved if I knew something was going on with a neighbor's child. Or anyone for that matter. Hell, I called the cops on the neighbor's teenage son and his friends a few weeks ago because I heard a girl screaming and someone yelling to her to get in the car and lock the door, while a boy kept screaming, "We had a pact!" I don't know these kids, all I know was I heard a frightened girl and a potentially violent boy. So I called the cops. I'll never know exactly what the situation really was, but if it could have escalated into violence, I'm not ashamed to admit I called the cops. My husband called me a busybody. Maybe so, but it's who I am. I couldn't live with myself if that girl ended up beaten or shot. Could you?
posted by Meghan at 11:47 AM
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