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?

 

 

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