So last week, Friday I think, I checked on all the listservs and yahoo groups that I have a membership, there are quite a few. A bunch has to do with romance stories. I am a true romance junkie. I lean more towards erotica literature on some days but over all a good story with some conflict, an testosterone alpha male and HEA (happily ever after) is right up my alley when I want to just forget. I wish on Friday I could have gotten a do over and completely forgotten. It was not the way I wish anyone to start their Friday mornings.
A friend on one of the yahoo groups is a foster parent. A few days before a social worker called and asked her if she could take in a four year old little boy. This little boy was physically abused by his mother. There were visible gashes and bruises on his face and upper body. The social worker warned my friend to not be "alarmed" at the rings around the penis area. My friend was completely perplexed.
Rings???
Seems the mother decided that the best way to toilet train her son was to tie his penis with string... Tightly so that he would not "wet the bed at night". As I am driving to work all I can think about is my 2 year old son that I left at the babysitter not 30 minutes prior. All of the women on the listserv are calling for bodily damage to this unknown woman who birthed this innocent child. As I forward the post to facebook, my friends start to chime in and before I know there is a full blown discussion on how there should be a law against people like this who give birth and are not fit to be parents.
As I was trying to reply, I am crying uncontrollably because my mind can't comprehend how one human being can hurt the most innocent of innocent. Her own child. At this point I am raging against the world. The injustice of the scars both physical and emotional that the child will have to endure. I am angry and I hurt right along with all those posting on the group and on facebook calling for this woman's "head" on the proverbial platter. I want to march to this city and force the government to take care of its most innocent citizens. I want to march and rally and create PSAs that will bring light to an all too common problem.
While I voice my opinion on facebook and the group and plot and plan with my friends, I realize it’s nothing more than us being idealistic. We won't affect change to help this child. We won't pass a law that will make it impossible for this woman to do this again.
She's seven months pregnant with her 2nd child.
There ought to be a law!
There Ought to be A LAW!!!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Posted by Marci Jones at Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Labels: 2nd Blog - 11/3/08
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5 comments:
Hey Marci. I am in utter and complete shock after hearing the horrific details of a woman who doesn't even deserve the title mother and her actions towards her son. I agree that posting such stories on social networking sites like Facebook help in the aspect of venting about your feelings with others, who in this particular situation, were all in agreement with you. It also aids in informing others of just how sick and sadistic individuals can be towards others. Although it may not inspire complete and dramatic change, I don't think that you should think that it doesn't have any effect on an individual who reads about it.
I recently read a story about a Marine overseas in Iraq who, through the help of people back home in the States, was able to raise $5000 to have a stray dog from Iraq sent back to his home state so that when the Marine returned, he could become the dog's caretaker. The dog had suffered much physical abuse and fell in love with the Marine while in Iraq. So much so that he followed him everywhere, to include the helicopter the Marine rode on hundreds of miles away from the base where he had first found the dog.
I'm usually not one to be an extreme optimist to the point where I say you and your friends posts about that woman will inspire much change (to include passing a law) but even just informing people of the going ons in the world can be enough sometimes. :)
Have you ever seen the movie Idiocracy? There is one part of the film (which takes place in the future) that shows the makings of two future families: one, a yuppie couple who can never decide to have kids because the time isn't right, then once they're ready she's too old to conceive. Flash to the other couple: "endearing" rednecks who intermarry, propigating with their cousins and overpopulating the U.S. The social commentary seems to me to be that neither should you wait too long, or marry your close relative. But it should also be that maybe we need to exert societal pressure on those to have kids not when they're rich, but when they're mentally and emotionally healthy.
I have wondered on many occasions why there isn't more societal pressure about being parents: I've had plenty of my 17 and 18 year old students pregnant while in my class. But what you describe here is whole other story--that of child abuse.
Are there laws anywhere in which repeat offenders are summarily sterilized? Then again, there have been problems in the past with governments sterilizing innocent people. Frightening, all of this.
What do we do about it?
Wow, that’s all I have to say. The story was bad enough, until I got to the end and seen she’s seven months pregnant! There is a definite need for a law in cases like this. She shouldn’t be around children, let alone have another. It’s sad but you hear these kinds of stories all the time, but the worst part is the ones you don’t hear. These children will be scarred for life. The impact that this will have is traumatic, even in adulthood. It’s almost like a chain reaction. You always hear stories like this and come to find out the one committing the crime blames it on crazy things their parents did to them as a child. What kind of treatments are there for the victims? Does anything help, or is the crime always with them affecting their life?
That's pretty f'd up. But you can't "rage at the world" over it. Trust and believe, people will do idiot and slightly sadistic things like this. Most of whom simply don't know any better, some of whom probably should've been castrasted.
This is such a truly sad story. Unfortunately in my line of work I deal with these type of cases everyday. It's so different hearing about it from this perspective. Usually I'm the one reading thousands of pages of medical files
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