Child Welfare
We sometimes exhibit a disparity in values that suggests some problems inherent in our thinking and the systems our thinking has birthed. Take the case of the woman whose savage beating of her 4-year-old daughter was captured on a store security system videotape, and subsequently broadcast nationwide. She was charged with miscellaneous nasties, and was released on $5,000 bail. Her attorney reports that she is remorseful, adding, "It was a bad choice, and it was captured on candid camera." A bad choice? That's it? I think if it came up for a national vote, the woman would be shot or worse.
Put her case up against that of the 34-year-old father who with his 15-year-old son jumped out of the stands at a Windy City baseball game, and knocked down and pummeled the first-base coach of the opposing team. The guy, it was reported, had a tough year, with the loss of his job and the death of a one-month old daughter. He also has a rap sheet for burglary and domestic battery.
We're told that the guy called his sister and told her to watch the game or the late news on TV, and then handed his cellphone and keys to a 14-year-old son, who was also at the game with the man's two nephews. The 15-year-old will be dealt with as a juvenile; his father is in jail on a $200,000 bond. Most people would think that his behavior was just downright awful, but they wouldn't shoot him. I would be less hesitant about not shooting him, because (1) he attacked an oldish man from behind (2) with his son (3) in front of other boys for whom he would theoretically be a role model (4) after advertising his intentions.
One of the deep flaws in our society is that we tend to let people off for sports misadventures; somehow, we seem to think, the testosterone is contagious, and dangerous in those who aren't professionals, and therefore marginally excusable. During the anti-war days, demonstrators were severely limited in what they could get away with, but after virtually every Superbowl victory, very few arrests are made for much more serious violence, danger to police, and vandalism. One speculates that this guy in Chicago got slam-bang'd because he was a cowardly sack of manure, possibly drunk, and he committed his assault on television.
But it's curious that we let the mother off so easily (so far) for assaulting a child. The child was in grave danger, but probably not the coach; yet the woman is gettin' out and the guy isn't. Does this define our values?
Beyond despairing the circumstances that brought these two regrettable examples of homo excretia to our attention, we might think about how we might reach their confreres and apers, and get through to them with a message that will inhibit their conduct before they go public.
We as a society have an obligation to the young children who live among us -- that they shall be protected from such mistreatment -- and that obligation far outweighs the rights of any individual, even mother's.
For too long we have averted our eyes from the sorry truth that many in our country are behaving atrociously. If they want to destroy themselves, well, maybe we shouldn't work too hard to stop them, but we must -- if we claim to be a morale society -- intervene to protect those around them from their perversion. That includes not only removing the youngsters from households where they are being struck, but also protecting teens -- who have enough on their plate as it is -- from the influences of depraved adults.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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