Where Do You Find The Heart To Hurt A Child?

Children are little precious beings that come along to replenish and maintain our society. And, just like “God made man in his image,” our children are reflections of ourselves. In general, when a child is born the parents are happy and often other people as well. One just has to look at the little newborn lying there innocently, smiling, crying, and staring blankly; and one must feel a certain urge to pick a child up and cuddle him. Modern societies have applied certain measures to control the flow of birth and to appropriately care for children among us. We shower our children with love. They develop and interact with us. We protect them and bring them happiness. We arrive to share very special bonding. And, when we become old and unable to care for ourselves, they take charge of us.

Where does anyone find the courage to hurt a child to death? The little three-year-old boy carries a broad smile on his face with his two hands inside his front pockets. He wears a nice clean sweatshirt, jeans, and a necklace that appears to hold some type of heart-like pendant. By simply looking at this picture on the Miami Herald, no one could imagine that the little boy had been living a traumatized life. However, on Tuesday January 21^st 2014 this child was found dead. He was murdered by his own mother. Why did she do it? How could she even stand torturing her own child until he expired? Most of us may not even be capable to apply minor punishment to a child; we would never imagine torturing and not to mention killing one.

Yet, this remains a common affair around us. Among destitute parents, children are going hungry; children are lacking medical care; and, children are being ultimately abused. As the newspaper reported, “…behind the brilliant smile was a life of torment and pain.” The boy “was burn by his mom with a lighter when he urinated on the floor. He was beaten with an aluminum broom handle when he soiled himself. He was hurled across a room and hit a table.” That was too much. He died. The irony is everything appeared fine on the surface. The reporter wrote, “…the picture of a healthy, carefree boy, grinning broadly…” was on the mother’s Facebook page.

Yet, deep within we would dive into the mystery of poverty and instability that is ravaging our less fortunate communities. This mother was young, poor, uneducated, and very likely single. She had three prior reports with DCF, the child welfare system. She worked as a security guard. And, the father of her three children was not present at the time of the murder. One could understand therefore how unstable her home environment must have been. The media and the police have ultimately condemned her action. She greatly deserves that. For, it is so horrendous to imagine a mother or any other human being torturing a little child to death. However, we still have a big question as to the role of our society in this lamentable circumstance.

We don’t even have to touch the child welfare system. We know already that it has often done a poor job. So many children have died under DCF’s watch we would not expect it to save a particular one. Society likewise must accept the blame with this mother. She is poor and unstable. When those individuals are locked up inside the inner cities shutting off from the prosperity of our society as it is, they are bound to failure. We have witnessed so many cases similar to this; so many little precious beings have been abused; so many families are neglected by society.

By E.C. GRANMOUN
E.C. Granmoun is the author of "The Social Worker" ebook on amazon.com
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