Something I don't get is how people come to some of the conclusions they do about things. I mean I know I've said this before but it just strikes me over and over again how important that observation is.
A woman goes to work and leaves her nine year old child alone in a park. She does this every day. Someone reported her and she got into trouble for doing it.
Simple right? Everyone knows you don't leave a little kid alone in a public park to wander for eight hours while you're at work. Just like you wouldn't dump them at the mall for eight hours either.
Except its not simple. Its racist that the woman got into trouble. She's black in this case btw. Its unfair, its discriminatory, its racist, its attacking low income people, its a bunch of stuff.
What it is not is neglect according to large amounts of people.
Since when?
You just don't dump your kid off some place alone for the day every friggin day. You just don't do that. Color, once again, has no place in the discussion because it doesn't matter. White, black or polka dotted you don't leave your kid somewhere like a park or anywhere without supervision for eight hours each day.
Yet the responses are "Everybody in the area does it" "Lots and lots of kids are left there every day so she shouldn't have gotten in trouble" "Well look she's left the kid there for months and nothing has ever happened to the kid so that proves its okay" "If she wasn't black she wouldn't have got in trouble" "Its a war on the poor" "Its another example of the war on low income working people" "Its a parent's choice of when to leave her kid alone somewhere" "Its racist"
None of them are applicable and none of them should be used.
I don't care if everybody does it. Just because everybody is doing something wrong doesn't make that something okay. Do you remember your mother asking "If everyone jumped off a bridge would you?" and you laughed at it as absurd. Well here's an example, everybody does it so its okay for this woman to do it. That is the justification or one of them being used.
The fact that lots and lots of kids get left there everyday is again a case of just because that's happening it doesn't make it right, its not. All of the parents doing that should get into trouble for doing it not just the one woman.
The argument that the kid has been left there for months and nothings happened to her so it proves its okay to leave a little kid in the park like that is beyond ridiculous. Just because nothing has happened to her yet doesn't mean she isn't being put at huge risk daily of bad things happening to her sooner or later. She is.
The arguments about race, income and working people are just red herrings to detract from what this woman has done in the hopes the cops and prosecutors will back off when facing the "Racist" charge. It has nothing to do with any of that. If it does then there should be hell to pay because even if it was a rich white woman its still wrong and someone who does that should be going to jail period. To say blacks, poor etc should get a pass for child endangerment just sets my blood boiling. I'm tired of hearing these piss poor excuses for bad behavior and bad judgement. I'm sorry if its hard to find child care or afford it but hey you opened your legs and now you have a kid. You have a responsibility to take care of that child. You don't meet that by dumping a kid off anywhere without adult supervision.
So yeah I'm tired of the race issue being brought up as some type of excuse or something for bad behavior by blacks. The same arguments were brought up in regards to the mom in Phoenix who left her little babies in a hot car while she went in for an interview for an hour or so in 100+ heat. "What was she supposed to do?" and on and on. Not that!
Anyway this is being excused and there are apparently huge numbers of people coming out in support of the mother in this case which really disgusts me. Its child abuse and nothing happening bad to that child is pure luck not justification for allowing it.
How anyone can even think its okay under any circumstances is beyond me. The woman who reported it is being reported as approaching the child after watching her in the park for over five hours alone. She asked the child if she was alright and who was with her. The child told her she's been left alone there lots of times and was alone that day again.
I would really like to know how anyone can not see this as wrong, dead wrong much less how they can continually seek to justify it.
I'm sorry I just don't get it and don't want to.
The final thing I've heard is the "Its a parent's right to decide when to leave her child alone" bit.
My answer is yes and no. Yes its a parent's right to decide this based on the child being old enough physically, psychologically and emotionally. But that right is predicated upon the parent having the judgement and capability to make a reasoned choice for their child that is in the best interest of the child and it's safety.
If the parent is incapable, unable, or unwilling to exercise that good judgement then it falls on law enforcement and social service agencies to step in to protect and act in the best interests of said child.
Leaving a nine year old alone at the park every day, all day and a girl at that is not good or acceptable judgement. The fact that the woman persists in thinking it is troubles me greatly. The fact that so many others think it is scares me.
If a parent decides to give their nine or ten year old vodka because they think their child is ready for it, is that okay? Is deciding that a child doesn't have to wear a car seat or seat belt okay if the child doesn't want to and the parent thinks its old enough to decide for itself? How about going to school, smoking, drugs, sex or a plethora of other things that a child shouldn't be allowed to do.
The entire excuse mentality for bad decisions, bad judgement, and bad behavior is extremely troubling and a very dangerous sign of where not only are we at but where we're going as a society. In days past she might claim its okay but all would unanimously condemn the actions. Today its the opposite and the media is sympathetic instead of condemning thereby furthering the dangerous mentality overtaking our country.
It does exist already and it shouldn't. The question is what are we going to do about it?
Maybe the question at this point should be "What can we do about it?"
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