Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?! (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?)
Today is Ash Wednesday for Christians, the start of Lent. Lent is the period leading up to Easter. It's a time of reflection, penance, prayer, thinking about yourself and world you live in. Today I'd rather not think about the world my girls with autism will grow up in. Here's why in an excerpt and the link from Barbara Fischkin's post on Huffington.
"A 13-year-old boy with autism died after police say two care workers for the disabled drove him around for 90 minutes - errands, buying beverages and shopping - when he stopped breathing in their van."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-fischkin/manslaughter-charge-an-a_b_41662.html
I am going to get to Church today for Ashes. My husband is traveling and it's a hassle to go with the three kids by myself. I'll manage. I need to go to pray for Jonathan Carey a slender, 13 year old boy whose family is asking God today and every day for the rest of their lives, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani" for their son. A boy who didn't deserve to die in a van after a trip to the mall.
You can visit Barbara's website at www.barbarafischkin.com. She's a fiction writer who can entertain the heck out of you too, not just make you burst into tears.
Welcome! Come to Boston to meet Kat Cavicchio in my new e-book House of Cards available through Amazon on Kindle and supported devices!
4 comments:
Kim, I am disgusted and outraged to live in a society where this could happen. Yet I am not surprised. The bigoted attitudes that lead so many to think less of some of their fellow human beings are rampant.
Even in the title of the article you linked to, I noticed those responsible were to be charged with manslaughter. For driving around for 90 minutes after someone stopped breathing? It seems the prosecutors don't value this particular human life as highly as that of other children.
I understand why you are concerned for your girls' future. You are right to be, much as I wish I could say otherwise. But, you are doing all you can do to improve it, by calling attention to such incidents, and by pointing out the injustice and the tragedy.
I am absolutely appalled. How the hell does someone get charged with only manslaughter after such obvious neglect?
Bigotry obviously knows no bounds. As one type of prejudice becomes intolerable by polite society, it moves on to others whom society deems 'less than worthy.'
Oh, Kim, this makes me sick and saddened and equally outraged. Why? I keep shaking my head, asking why do things like this have to happen, and when is it ever going to stop, all the stupidity and madness on this earth?
(Thank you for the link to her website).
The world is full of rocks that we can choose to turn over - look at the slugs and bugs and creepy crawlies and do something about them, or plop the rock down and forget about it. Darfur? 20 year old war vets with no legs? Children hungry in American towns and cities? Elderly who can't afford food and precriptions? Too far away. They chose to go. Their parents should get a job. The old folks just didn't save enough money. Right?
Autism is now just part of those "tsk tsk lists" and will likely stay there are these kids grow into adults - the one's who aren't murdered while in the care of state of private institutions that is. Most folks prefer to worry about their taxes (always too high) and their lawns (never green enough)and which flight to take to their kids' next travel team soccer game. You know, the real problems of the world.
The Carey's buried their son yesterday and I can not get that out of my mind. I just can't.
I need coffee.
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