a blog where my bleeding heart may make me a cold heart

I’ve been on vacation for a week. A kind of surreal week when I’ve sort of been in touch with what’s going on… and yet blissfully ignorant as well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fully detach myself from Facebook and the internet, so I wasn’t able to tune out THE BIG STORY of the week. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I envy you.

So apparently justice failed in Florida… at least I think it’s Florida. I did try to tune out the details of the woman who was exonerated from the case against her for killing her child. It’s sad. It’s awful. It’s infuriating… but it isn’t… news. I’m certain someone will read that and think I’m insensitive. But you know what? I hear a lot of stories about children who are abused, neglected, and killed. Does the fact there is another one make the first or the second any less terrible? No. And yet… why all this attention and outrage over the injustice? Because all the pundits and news programs decide this is the story? Because she was a cute little white girl from the south? Because there are Facebook groups and things to click like on to show that we care because we click our mouse? 

Does that really mean we care about children? We’ll leave on a porch light, but will we allow money to be taken from our paychecks to fund programs that will help neglected and abused children? That will feed them a healthy meal through WIC? Create safe and well funded schools so there is some other place to go? That will employ social workers that will intervene and get children out of a bad situation and find them a good home? If we feel so badly about how children are mistreated, why do we protest so loudly about creating systems that will help them? Why do we deny a woman who is ill equipped to be a healthy and nurturing parent the choice to not become a bad mother?

There are subtleties to all these questions, that I’m sure anyone can argue. There are corrupt agencies and misspent funds. There are children born into wealth and privilege and white skin who are horribly mistreated and not any less worthy of pity and the love that brings healing. But how… how can we all be so irate about the fate of one little child and not give a fig about the ones we have the option to help if it isn’t a headline and requires us to take a dollar or two out of our paycheck?