Shock Proof
Deborah Venable
01/19/08
The
current horror story here in Alabama is about a father who decided to toss his
four children, ranging in age from 4 months to 3 years, off the Dolphin Island
Bridge from a height of about 80 feet. It
made the national news.
The
story has all the elements for testing the complacency of a shock-proof public
and all the innuendo of the “did we miss anything?” crowd of social
reformists. His reason for doing such
an unthinkable act? Uh, it goes something
like, he had an argument with his wife.
That’s motivation for you!
Background
on this fellow and even his name is unimportant – it’s all in the news stories
anyway – but he had been living in this country since 1984 – transplanted from
Vietnam, and he was a shrimp fisherman from down in the Bayou area of extreme
southern Alabama. The oldest child, (3
years old) was not even his biological child, but the other three were. Oh, and he also had a very bad drug problem.
My
point is that this story will run out of steam long before any of the relevant
questions get answered. We are talking
about a period of twenty-three years this guy spent in this country. He was thirty-seven years old, so he came
here as a teenager long after the war in Vietnam. I must wonder what, if any, effect the change in culture had on
this young man. But the most important
question is where did he learn his concept of family and the importance of all
human life?
Do
you think that in our “if it bleeds, it leads” media mindset this question will
ever be formulated – much less answered?
That’s the real horror, isn’t it?
Is
the American public really “shock-proof”?
While incidents like the above may not happen every day, equally
appalling ones most certainly do. Many
people dedicate their entire lives to bringing such perpetrators to justice and
trying to prevent more atrocities. That
is what a community of people is supposed to do – police their own, punish the
guilty, and protect the innocent – isn’t it?
To do this effectively, the community must rely on a basic understanding
of what constitutes guilt, innocence, and fairness in sorting out such issues
as privacy and decency. What shocks one
may not shock us all, but when determining guilt we’d better have a real good standard
to go by.
I
doubt that too many people could hear about the “bridge incident” and not be
shocked at the utter cruelty and senselessness of such an act. That’s good. I want people in my community to be outraged and saddened that
any father could throw his innocent, young children away to a certain death –
for ANY reason. I also want people in
my community to be outraged and saddened that any mother could seek to abort
her innocent unborn child, or that any DOCTOR would willingly do it for her –
but, alas, too many HAVE attained that shock-proof status on this issue. I must ask, what is the difference between
one and the other? The victim is still
innocent and the perpetrators are still guilty – but they get a legal pass and
with far too many people in this country, a moral pass also.
I’m
certainly not shock-proof – are you?