It feels like the last 48 hours have been filled with sad news for kids, and that is really hard on a parent’s heart. My son would report that his sad news in that timeframe was being denied a Ring Pop, showing how truly cushioned his life is. I don’t want to pop that cushion either, and while catching a snippet of the news while turning on the TV for Saturday morning cartoons, I hate having to answer questions like, “What does ‘blunt force trauma’ mean?” Hopefully, it is something he will never know.
The story he happened to catch on the news was of a little four year old Napa girl, presumably killed at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend, possibly her mother, both of whom bolted, leaving her little body behind. The girl’s father is in San Quentin serving a life sentence. Between her parents and her mother’s boyfriend, this poor kid did not stand a chance, and it is so heartbreaking to think about what her life was like. Your dad is serving life in a notoriously brutal prison and the one person to guide you and protect you in life is too caught up in her own messy life.
Later in the day, the New York Times published a brave open letter by Dylan Farrow accounting sexual abuse in her childhood. It’s a story where the comments should be avoided. Many blame her for making the story up based on the fact that the perpetrator was never prosecuted, as though this is the fault of a child’s. Or for not bringing this up sooner, when again, she brought it up as a child. Or they blame her mother as concocting the story as part of a vendetta. It’s sad when pedophiles, whether alleged or convicted, garner the benefit of the doubt. There is innocent until proven guilty, but also there are laws that protect pedophiles, largely statute of limitations. If you harm a child, but they don’t have the ability or courage to come forward about it until they are a teenager or an adult, time should not block justice. It hurts my heart to think of the bad things happening to kids every day and the lack of help on their side.
Why is it that we treat rescued dogs and cats better than powerless children?
Kim,
Just read that story this morning. So sad about the little Napa girl. Sadly it’s like that song, children and animals have no choices and at our mercy. I’m not sure what to think about the whole Woody Allen thing. Usually I would not doubt a child, but Mia Farrow has shown herself to be the most unstable and vindictive person for many decades, so who knows what’s really going on? Her comments are pretty horrendous. The whole thing makes me ill and sad.
So nice to meet you and finally getting a chance to see your blog and follow you..Hopefully we will connect up again sometime!
Kim