Anyone whose been here before already knows that I love children, their parents, and almost anything that breathes. I say almost, because there are some creatures that give me the willies, but for the most part I am a real softie for animals, and children, and people. Pet lovers seem to gravitate together, because my entire family was that way, and all our friends are like that too. So it was with great indignance a couple of years ago that the story broke that this local man was arrested for neglect of several horses. All the animal shelters from all over the area volunteered their time, energy and resources to collect the pitiful scrawny survivors of this man's cruel indifference,pay for the medical attention that it took to bring them back from starvation, and house and feed them back to health. There was a general outcry from the citizenry when the perpetrator was allowed to post bail and disappear without so much as a slap on the wrist.The general consensus of opinion was that this person should be watched over by the court, because anyone capable of such hard-hearted treatment of such beautiful creatures as horses, would be likely to do any dastardly thing to any creature unlucky enough to be under his thumb. However, the court said they did all they could do according to the law to punish him for his terrible deeds and once he escaped their custody, and did not show up for sentencing, they assumed he was gone from the area and very probably outside their district of influence, and after all, it was only horses that he had hurt and killed. Even so, a lot of us didn't give up! We called our state representatives, (or at least threatened to) and complained that the law should be changed. We pleaded for them to open their eyes and be able to connect the dots. Any man who can watch while horses owned by them are slowly starving to death, and not raise a finger to take better care of them has no right to have any sort of pet, or be "responsible" for a child, or have any sort of influence over anything smaller and weaker than he is. So here we are two years later, and a couple of weeks ago, this man's name and visage appeared on our television screens again. Only this time, an anonymous caller had tipped off the police that a woman on this man's property had drowned. Sure enough, when the cops investigated the matter, they did indeed find this man's wife, dead by drowning, next to a pond, on his property! He quickly went from being a person of interest in the case, to being charged with murder.
The up side, of course, is that through that poor woman's passing, the law shall finally bring this person to justice, not only for what he did to his own wife, but for those poor creatures who suffered so horribly at his hands. And yet,if the law were written better, those horses could have been a "red flag" to the authorities, an indicator of what this person was capable of,and they might have been able to act upon this situation, and prevented her death.
Now, I know enough to realize that there is no such thing as preventive law. The law cannot save you. They can only punish those who have broken the law,regardless of how the police try to protect and serve, they can only go so far, because their hands are tied by the written law. And, the rights of every individual must be protected, because it is so easy to get someone into trouble,and so difficult to get out of it, if they are innocent. So, the law leans so hard on the side of the accused and defendant for that very reason.
Therefore, it can be very puzzling to try to explain to a child how a man such as the one I have sited to you can go about, doing bad things, and not get put in jail until he does something really awful, that can't be undone. There is rarely something more daunting than to look into those big innocent eyes and search your own mind for the words to say, when you are seething inside over the facts of the situation yourself.However, it is possible. First, of course, you must be able to see the situation not as a total disastar with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but as an object lesson and an example of how human beings must learn to cope with the world as it is. Bad things happen. Evil does exist. There comes a point where even children must look about them with wisdom, and not be so protected that they are set up as victims from the onset of their life in the world....such as their first day at school, or the first trip they take to the store with someone who is not going to watch them as closely as their mother or father. They need to know, that should they be separated from their parents, who to go to, who they can trust, as a group, without having to know that person personally, such as a policeman, Sheriff, or a fireman...and not just one who says they are a cop or fireman, but one who drives that sort of car, wears that sort of uniform, and has that sort of badge. In this way, you can take the child's focus off the scary thing that happened, and put it on how this effects them,not in a selfish way, but constructively.
And finally, we must remind our children that there is a God in heaven who loves them, and that he allowed this to happen for a reason. Perhaps only to bring it to our attention that life is precious, and fragile,and every day should be lived as though it is our last, with joy and thanks,and love.
Remember:" This is a day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"
OUI?
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