Our Babies

Last Friday, I read an article on CBS News featuring one of the most horrific cases of child abuse about which I've ever read or heard. It is nothing less than sickening. Now the torture that this child endured is certainly dispicable. It is disconcerting. It literally brought me to tears and then I was incensed. This child's mother tortured and allowed her girlfriend and a third woman to repeatedly inflict pain and humiliation upon this child. A baby, a baby, a baby. I know that this case is of particular significance to me because my son is the same age. All I could envision was some pitiful excuse for a woman doing this to him. How could she?

I became so enraged, not so much because of what she did, but how long she was allowed to do it after being investigated for abusing the same child in 2005. Moreover, this child had been placed in the care of his grandmother and others who saw blatant signs of abuse, and yet told no one. The headline places the blame upon the system, however, I place blame upon citizens and family. What has become of us? How do we live with ourselves when we turn a blind eye to an abused child. The outrage following the discovery of Michael Vick's dog fighting ring was ten times more intense. That is an outright embarrassment. This is devolutionary. How does a society demonstrate more compassion for canines, vicious killer pitbulls to be specific, than it does for its own species, more importantly, the most vulnerable of its species?

I'm not letting the "system" off the hook. It certainly has significant responsibility in allowing the torture to continue for three years after the initial investigation. You should be a person of integrity, character, endurance, and extreme compassion to work in social services. Your moral compass should be so intact, so ferocious, that you could not treat an abuse case like a simple job. Where was the follow up? Why has this mother not been charged with attempted murder? Why aren't all people convicted of child abuse eligible for the death penalty?

The real issue here is not so much this one case. There have been cases even more grotesque.
I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the Precious Doe case. Again, the perpetrators in the crime were those given the duty by the Creator to love and protect a child. The mother's boyfriend murdered her and dumped the body in 2001. Although relatives encountered the mother and the boyfriend several times without the child after the murder, no one came forward. The body was discovered and artist renderings were featured on national broadcasts, and yet, it took years for someone to come forward. Why? Why? Why?

In the US, children are no longer valued. When you tell someone that you have children, especially more than one, you are looked at as though you have a contagious skin eating disease. People have launched websites and businesses against and/or prohibiting children. Do you not realize that you were once a child? Someone exhibited patience with you. Someone took time to guide you. Since when did it become cool to dislike children? The abuse, the light punishments for abusers--are all symptoms of a greater social and psychological problem.

One has to only look at the reaction to R Kelly verdict to see it in operation or perhaps the other case last week in which a father stomped and beat his two year old to death in the middle of an intersection. I share all of this to say that we must protect our children. We must embrace our babies for the gifts that they are. Each of us has a responsibility in this village to protect our children. For the woman who placed the anonymous call to DHS that led to the arrest of Starkeisha Brown, we thank you. You saw injustice and were compelled to act. Thank you.

If you feel compelled:


Trust Fund Information for the abused boy
Donations or contributions for this child may be sent in care of:
Michael Wrice/DCFSThe Department of Children and Family Services
501 Shatto Place Room 301
Los Angeles, CA 90020
Please make checks payable to: DCFS/Trust Fund