I have not posted in a while. Believe it or not I retired and winded up being busier than when I had a full-time job and simply didn't have the time to post. Nevertheless, I am now working part-time from home to supplement my pension and my life has gotten a little more stable now so I've decided to post another observation...
The recent story in the news from Atlanta about the 10 year old child being starved to death by her step-person had a number of curious elements to it.
Firstly, the actual father should have been given the exact same sentence as the step-person as it was his legal and moral obligation to ensure this child's care. Why should he be given life in prison (which doesn't mean life in prison anymore as there is a release date for these so-called lifers) and the step-person be given a death sentence? Both should have been sentenced to death or life in prison. He should not have been given the choice to plea bargain his way out of the death sentence. Either both plea or no plea should have been acceptable.
Secondly, I don't like to post these unusual stories on my blog as most people do not starve their children to death; thus, I wish to focus on the sorts of things most people do. But a curious factor in this case strikes me, which is why didn't he give back custody of his daughter to her grandmother. Especially with the obvious antipathy this step-person showed towards his daughter from a very early age. His daughter had been removed from his home and placed with the grandmother for six months and was doing very well in school and thriving in her grandmother's home (from all reports anyway). So why remove her from that environment if you know your wife doesn't like her? You could still visit your daughter as much as possible (after all she would be living with your mother) so what was the issue? I didn't hear one person ask or answer this obvious question in spite of all the testimony and rhetoric spoken and written about this case.
The obvious answer which no one wishes to dwell upon is that this man did not wish to have to pay child support for his daughter. He was already working two jobs to support his new family and I guess he thought it would be 'cheaper' to keep his daughter with him exposing her to harm from the step-person rather than pay the child support and leave her safely with his mother.
Well this is the end result of his financial calculation....
I have said it before and I will say it again we have done a vast disservice to children by allowing them to be made a financial asset for people. It causes those, who in the past, would have just walked away from unwanted/unloved children to remain in their lives and makes it virtually impossible for others to remove them from dangerous situations. The result is many more of these horrible cases in our headlines and many more children undergoing needless suffering.
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