Utter Disgust
I am so angry and disgusted that I could spit nails or smack someone. Lucky for the kids, they are spending the night with their respective friends. (Ed. Disclaimer: I have never actually struck my kids, though there have been plenty of times that I really wanted to) What follows are the details of a local news story that has truly sickened me.
Last week a 4-year-old child went missing in a neighboring city. The incident touched off a massive manhunt, prayer vigils and as you can imagine, a huge media story. The boyfriend of the child's aunt was the one who reported the boy missing. What struck me as a bit strange at the time was the fact that the child was not reported missing until the aunt and the boyfriend had reportedly looked for him on their own for 5 hours before calling the police. The interview with the child's mother was rather disturbing, as she didn't seem to even know much about the child, much less his habits. She almost seemed to be on something. Of course, stress, grief and worry affect people in different ways. I'm sure if my child were missing I'd be heavily medicated as well. After two days of searching, the child's body was found.
As the story unfolded over the last several days many facts came to light. The "mother", it seems has not had custody of the child (or any of her other children). This little boy was in the custody of his paternal grandmother who lives in Jersey. He was here in the area to spend the summer with the aunt. It didn't take long after that for the news to report that the boyfriend had been arrested for murder. After the autopsy, the aunt and the boyfriend's mother were arrested for child abuse and neglect. It seems this little boy had been badly abused, apparently for quite some time, not just during this visit.
Believe it or not, as horrible as the story is, that is not what has me so riled up. I happened to read the boy's obituary in the paper. The family is planning a big funeral, and it is expected that the turn out will be huge as happens when these horrible stories are featured so prominently in the media. I have no problem with that. What got me though, was the last line of the obit. The family has set up a fund at a local bank for donations. The donations go to the family...NOT a children's shelter, NOT an organization that works to prevent child abuse, but the family. The fact that these people seek to gain financially from this child's death makes me physically nauseous.
I'll bury this post soon. I just felt the need to rant and rave. Now I think I'll go have some ice cream.
Last week a 4-year-old child went missing in a neighboring city. The incident touched off a massive manhunt, prayer vigils and as you can imagine, a huge media story. The boyfriend of the child's aunt was the one who reported the boy missing. What struck me as a bit strange at the time was the fact that the child was not reported missing until the aunt and the boyfriend had reportedly looked for him on their own for 5 hours before calling the police. The interview with the child's mother was rather disturbing, as she didn't seem to even know much about the child, much less his habits. She almost seemed to be on something. Of course, stress, grief and worry affect people in different ways. I'm sure if my child were missing I'd be heavily medicated as well. After two days of searching, the child's body was found.
As the story unfolded over the last several days many facts came to light. The "mother", it seems has not had custody of the child (or any of her other children). This little boy was in the custody of his paternal grandmother who lives in Jersey. He was here in the area to spend the summer with the aunt. It didn't take long after that for the news to report that the boyfriend had been arrested for murder. After the autopsy, the aunt and the boyfriend's mother were arrested for child abuse and neglect. It seems this little boy had been badly abused, apparently for quite some time, not just during this visit.
Believe it or not, as horrible as the story is, that is not what has me so riled up. I happened to read the boy's obituary in the paper. The family is planning a big funeral, and it is expected that the turn out will be huge as happens when these horrible stories are featured so prominently in the media. I have no problem with that. What got me though, was the last line of the obit. The family has set up a fund at a local bank for donations. The donations go to the family...NOT a children's shelter, NOT an organization that works to prevent child abuse, but the family. The fact that these people seek to gain financially from this child's death makes me physically nauseous.
I'll bury this post soon. I just felt the need to rant and rave. Now I think I'll go have some ice cream.
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