TRAGEDY AND TYRANNY

A Texas mother who neighbors say was "wonderful, caring, and always doing things with her children" cuts off the arms of her 11 month old daughter. The little girl lies bleeding to death while the mother coldly, and matter of factly, calls 911 to report what she has done. The little girl doesn’t survive.

In California, a two month old baby died of physical abuse at the hands of his parents even though the child’s grandparents tried to alert authorities even before he was born.

A fourteen month old boy, was tortured and starved by his babysitter.

Another child is fatally beaten after being returned to his father despite the fact that his father had a documented history of domestic violence and drug abuse.

A six-year-old girl died at the hands of her mother in New York. The little girl was born addicted to crack cocaine and autopsy reports show she suffered her entire (albeit short) lifetime from her mother’s abuse.

All of these stories are true. Child abuse and neglect related deaths are not isolated incidents. Across this country thousands of children are dying because of abuse and neglect right in their own homes at the hands of the people responsible for their care.

Figures available for 2001 from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS, 2003) found that four children die every day as a result of this abuse and neglect. That's 1,460 children every year!

An average of 140 children each year in the State of California alone. They are the most vulnerable of all of society, most too small to protect themselves in any way.

An average of 76% of the child fatalities are children under five years of age. Of those, 40% were under the age of one year old. What’s more disturbing is that an average of 39% of children who died had previously been involved with or were known to child protective services (CPS) (NCCAPR, 2001).

Of course, not all child abuse and neglect result in the death of the child. Many survive but are permanently disfigured, physically handicapped, as well as emotionally scarred.

In cases of "Shaken Baby Syndrome" for example, if the child survives, the medical bills can be enormous and lifelong. Requiring medical care for brain damage injuries such as mental retardation and cerebral palsy. In some cases the child may be so brain damaged that it may have to be institutionalized, for the rest of his or her life.

The "fortunate" ones who do survive will suffer internal wounds that may never heal. Many grow up and repeat the tragic cycle.

Occasionally, stories of abuse are gruesome enough to "get mention" on the evening news. Few are ever followed up on by the media, and tragically, these stories are too soon forgotten. The child ends up as a statistic. It’s life and death in vain.

The parent or caretaker is charged and is usually given some pathetically mild sentence. Perhaps, (hopefully) some intensive counseling and then returned to society. Their lives go on. They may re-marry, have more children and hold "sleep overs", but chances are you’ll never know who they are. There is a registry but it is kept strictly for law enforcement. Neighbors aren’t notified. Internet websites don’t post their faces. Yet they have tormented and taken the lives of those most innocent.

And where are the "do-gooder"child savers?

They can be found occasionally on Capital Hill, yelling and pounding their fists demanding that something be done for the literal "handful" of high profile cases like those of Adam Walsh, Polly Klass, and Jessica Lunsford who were killed by strangers.

It is becoming clear that these so-called "child savers" aren’t really out to save and protect "the most innocent among us". That is merely a perceived consequence of their actions.

An illusion.

These parents are driven by the guilt they themselves feel over the loss of their child. Maybe they feel that they should have kept better watch over their child, and maybe there is some truth to that. After all, they may just as easily have been killed crossing the street or falling into a neighbors unfenced swimming pool. It is a personal obsession based upon the selfish and insatiable needs of angry and grieving parents that drives them. They are out for blood, their emotions running wild.

Yes, they have a right to be angry and hurt. They have a right to be devastated and push for change. But is the way they are pushing for change going to achieve the ultimate goal of protecting America’s children? It has become crystal clear that putting the screws to sex offenders over and over again and making their lives as difficult as possible (revenge) takes precedent over child safety. So much so, that it’s become literally absurd.

Megan’s Laws and other such legislation, like that of HR 4472, are costing the American taxpayer literally billions of dollars as well as tying up numerous law enforcement officials with paperwork, address verifications, etc. on people who have already been convicted of a crime and who have completed their sentences. These laws do not protect the children by alerting the public to their whereabouts because the true danger lurks within the child’s own home over 90% of the time.

What’s interesting too, is that these laws only focus on sexual offenders and sexual abusers, as if that is the one and only type of abuse that can leave permanent scars. You could try telling that to the little girl who lost her arms and her life at the hands of her own Mother, if she were alive.

For the parents of children, like Adam Walsh, whose lives were lost tragically, and untimely it is an unspoken reality that these types of crimes against children are rare.

To quote to a 1997 study by the State of Washington’s Office of the Attorney General "the murder of a child who is abducted ... is a rare event. There are estimated to be about 100 such incidents in the United States each year. That’s 40 less than are murdered by their parents each year just in the state of California alone!

The largest number of missing children are "runaways"; followed by "family abductions"; then "lost, injured, or otherwise missing children"; and finally, the smallest category, "nonfamily abductions.

Yet it's the rare tragedies that continue to be a catalyst for tyranny and using high profile cases has proved to be a very powerful political tool. How could anyone argue against passing laws that further punish sex offenders? The politicians can "look tough on crime" when obviously once the facts are revealed they are really being "stupid on crime".

While sexual abuse is despicable there are indeed things that are much worse in life. Most children do not die or become permanently disfigured as a result. Sometimes they may grow up only to find themselves being the abuser as well as the abused, perpetuating the cycle on yet another generation.

If you think taking away the liberties, rights, freedoms, jobs, and even homes of every registered sex offender is a good thing, I would ask you to think again. Think about all the thousands of other children hurting and dying every day. Think of the child within the sex offender who is still hurting. Think about how the laws we make and the attitudes of society reflect on our values as Americans and as human beings.

Think of the young men who had consensual sex with their underage girlfriends who wound up on the registry for life. Indeed, the only thing the registry accomplishes is to publicly humiliate, dehumanize, and alienate every individual unfortunate enough to be subjected to it.

In over a decade of it’s existence, Megans Laws have proved to be neither a deterrent nor a preventative tool. It has, however, caused an environment condusive to abuse and hatred.

So we will reap what we sow as long as we continue on the path of vindication. I hope I live long enough to see the day when once again this country holds true to the values that countless men and women have fought and died for. That I may once again have my faith restored in the American people and the judicial system that treats individuals as individuals and when they are in need of help they receive it rather than being locked in a cage and let back out again only to continue the cycle.

May I live to see the day that ALL abuse, whatever form it takes be realized as the root of much that is wrong with society and that we as a country finally decide to really do something about it.

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Every Day In The U.S.

Four children die from abuse and neglect at the hands of their parents or caregivers. That's 1,460 children every year!