A Society of Throw Away Kids?
WARNING:THIS SECTION CONTAINS STRONG OPINONS ON SOCIETY! If that will bother you, scroll down and exit now. If not, please continue reading. I read an editorial recently that really said something that I believe is becoming true. The writer was commenting on the recent trials of the young adults who threw their newborn child in the trash. The comment was that with the advent of late term abortions, that some women feel that if it is ok to have a partial birth abortion, then why not just wait until the child is born, then throw it away? Save money and time! This is not about abortion, for that will be another page. This is about the general concept of throwing away children. It seems like you can't pick up a paper these days without reading another headline about a child that was beaten to death, or drowned in a toilet, or thrown in the trash. And it seems to be reaching epidemic proportions. What may you ask am I babbling about? Let me explain a little of why this bothers me so much.
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About three and a half years ago, I was sitting in the waiting room of a hospital, waiting for the reults of tests on my 2 month old baby. All we knew was that he was slowly wasting away and that I might face the possibility of burying my child. As I sat there crying, holding my precious child, waiting for any news at all, the t.v. station interrupted the broadcast to announce that a mother who had reported her children kidnapped, had just confessed that she had belted her children into her car and pushed it into a lake. I lost it. There I was fighting with everything I had to keep my child alive, and this woman had thrown away the most precious gift in the world. My child survived and has grown into a typical 3 year old little terror. But everyday that I hold and cuddle, play with and feed that little boy, I am thankful that he is alive.
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Yet it seems that we as a society have not only accepted this trend, but aren't willing to do anything about it. That woman is still alive, and we are paying to keep her that way. Yes, she will out her life in solitary, but that doesn't nearly apy for what she did. The young adults that tossed a living, breathing child into a trash can, hearing the crack of it's minutes old skull shatter, not only do they get to live, but will be back on the streets to do it again in a little over 2 years. And that seems to be what the standard punishment is going to be. So, where is the line that determines what is murder and what is not. If I were to take a gun and walk up to a stranger on the street and blow his head off, chances are I would spend the remainder of my days on death row. Yet, if I were to deliver a baby, put it in a trash bag, toss it in to a trash can, and hear it's skull crack against the side of a can, I get to walk away with next to no punishment? Is that not also cold blooded murder? Have we as a society become so numbed by the outrageous things that occur in our world that the murder of a newborn baby rates almost no punishment? Our headlines rail against the children killed in bombings half way around the world, and the deaths of our children from drugs and guns, yet the heartless treatment of a baby rates only a small paragraph tucked away between the gossip about the president and the latest show biz breakups. Where is the logic in this?
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When the world in general seems to be more outraged at the sexual antics of our elected leaders than at the heartless destruction of our most precious commodity, the future of our world seems mighty bleak. Yes, it is tragic that everyday drug dealers blow each other away, and that many of them are children. And it is equally tragic that all around the world children are dying because of someone's religious ideals. However, I feel that it is more tragic that we have become a society that not only accepts the fact that children are born and then thrown away, but that we also accept the fact that these people who do the throwing away will be freed to do it again, in most cases in close to the amount of time it took to carry the child to birth. It is time that we as a society of civilized people became angry and said that not only is this wrong, but it is wrong to allow these people the chance and opportunity to do it again. Yet we are trampling on their civil rights if we take away their right to bear children, either by sterilizing them, or by incarcerating them until they are too old to bear any more children. When will it be enough? We are outraged when someone wants to end their own life with dignity and choice, but not when a child who has no voice is not only not given a chance at life, but suffers the indignity of their short life being ended in the same place we throw out yesterdays food and news. When is it going to be time to say that all life, once given is equally precious, and that to terminate that life with out any concern for life, is wrong? When will we say enough is enough and that murder of a newborn should carry the same penalties as the murder of a drug dealer or any other human being that has had a chance to experience life? I say that that time is now!
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