What are your priorities?
Sometimes I wonder just how much money has been spent in the United States on “green” campaigns or changes. Or how much money goes into those annoying anti-tobacco ads, trying to shove the Truth down our throats. When I see yet one more item in special pink packaging, I have to admit I feel frustrated and actually go out of my way to purchase something else—regardless of the fact that I’m tired of breast cancer being so popular and hip while millions die of other, not so female diseases and maladies.
However, the real reason that I feel slightly ill with resentment when I see a new green phone or pink packaged noodles is not only annoyance at the pressure to feel as though I need to give my every last dime to what seems to be advertising efforts rather than true help for the issue, but also because I feel that the US has its priorities crossed, and something needs to be done about other dangers in our society.
For instance, did you realize that almost 5 children die every day in the US from abuse and/or neglect? That more than 3 out of every 4 of those children are under the age of 4? I’m sure you know a toddler or infant, or have one yourself. Imagine that child being beaten to death by an adult—not the newspaper article afterward, but the actual attack on that child. Imagine how that child must feel—have you ever been hit in a fight or an accident? Have you ever hit someone or something, even accidentally? Well, imagine the force of that against a 3-month-old’s face. Imagine the feeling that a toddler must have upon being punched with an adult’s strength for having a potty-training accident.
It’s hard to imagine, and most people refuse to contemplate the horror of the situation. Perhaps that is why we can spend so much time, passion, and effort on health insurance debate or breast cancer awareness, or recycling every last item we use. But in my opinion, that child being beaten to death today is a hell of a lot more important than whether or not Obama is Hitler incarnate or whether our vehicles are gas-guzzlers.
Why do we allow this? Why do I hear 3 different news segments every single day about how Lindsay Lohan didn’t wear panties last night, but I don’t hear about little Diego Calles being beaten to death over a week long period by his mother’s boyfriend while she watched? Why isn’t there as much outrage about this 4-year-old boy and how his intestines ruptured from being beaten and tortured, and how now his mother has immunity from any charges so that she can tell exactly how she watched this torture? Why can’t anyone tell me why the hell there is so much focus on the AMA performance because some guy kissed another guy, but nothing about how atrocities like this are not only committed every day, but allowed to occur with barely a blip on the radar about how this is happening?
Little Diego had a baby sister too, who was horribly abused. She survived. Now the fact that there is a statute of limitations with torture will allow Lujan to avoid charges for that. In other words, we’re currently allowing someone to say that it’s okay to torture an infant, since it was 3 years ago (this occurred in 2006 lack of testimony was one reason the prosecution has offered immunity to the bitch who watched her boyfriend torture her children, and the only reason that she is even taking up for her children in court now–otherwise she would have allowed this monster to never be charged with the torture or murder. Too bad she was given immunity because after her testimony, it’s obvious she deserves prison just as much as he does–it is Justina Morales all over again).
I know it’s disturbing. People are mostly good, and to hear such horror is something we naturally avoid. I used to avoid such stories at all costs because they’d wear me down to the bone with feelings of guilt, helplessness, and impotence at something that is so naturally revolting I can’t even imagine it occurring.
Go ahead and send in that donation to the newest favorite cause, because money isn’t even required here. All that is needed is your voice, your voice to tell your local authorities that you will not accept anything less than justice for these little ones, voices that demand explanations and plans from your local child protection services. Your voice is a powerful tool, and it’s time that you used it for more than trying to beat someone verbally with your opinion of Obama, healthcare, or Paris Hilton. Your voice can actually save a child!
Stand up, educate yourself about the local offices you elect—sheriffs, judges, other politicians. Have they made a record of advocating for the weakest segment of our population? Have they allowed criminals to walk easily because of intolerable lenience to violence? If you’re like me, you never gave a thought to the judges and other officials on that ballot that you have filled out. Perhaps you thought it didn’t matter, that the law is the law, but that is not true. Each and every trial is dependent upon the arguments used, the evidence, and most of all, the judge and jury. In turn, those are based on the laws as written and accepted. However, the most powerful part of a democracy is the very ability to decide what laws are enacted and which are not. We’ve lost that in an effort to remain “fair” and to make sure that everyone has a chance to reform, even when basic logic and instinct tells us that reform should have come before the decision to beat a child to death.
There is a fair and just alternative to every single unjust action we allow, and we need to start making that the reality. We’re a democracy and proud to be that way, but we’re wasting the true power and benefit of such a government. We’ve started to think that the only way to be equal and fair is to allow nothing be labeled wrong, or to punish others who have done wrong, because it would tread on their rights. A democracy is not a way to avoid standards. Equal rights should be earned, and while we’ve finally moved beyond feeling a person’s birth or color or sexuality is what earns or precludes equal fundamental rights, we’re so mistaken in who deserves them. If our entire country and sense of righteousness is dependent upon human rights and making sure that every person has that equal share, then it’s time to make sure that everyone has that—and right now we have taken the right to safety, security, and love away from children and babies. That’s not how I feel and I don’t think it’s how anyone feels, but for some reason we’ve lost that fact in lieu of awareness of every other thing under the sun.
In the US, we have a lot of work to do in order to live up to the idea of ourselves. Let’s start.