No Grave Could Be Deep Enough

Evil shows itself to all of us in different forms and in varying degrees of intensity. Each of us has been touched at some point by the palpable presence of darkness, some of us plunged into proximity with what can be seen only as the works of entities bent on destruction, while others escape with mere shadows darting from the corners of their eyes.

Other events though, are sometimes so heinous and abhorrent that they can only be classified as beyond the pale, so dark and so evil that the perpetrators themselves must be spawned by hell itself.

I'm speaking of course about the killers and abusers of children, those special degenerates for whom no grave can be deep enough to bury the memory of the deeds they have done. In recent weeks there seems to have been an unusual spate of murders, snuffings of little lives and abuses of those whose only crime was to cry out for love and affection. Here's a few of the most recent tales of the death of innocence. You decide whether they are the actions born of desperation, or just cold, calculated evil itself.

In Chattanooga Tennessee, a man brought his stepson to the emergency room at Memorial North Park Hospital, claiming he had fallen off of a picnic table while the family was on a day trip to the park. The child's injuries were so severe that he died a short time later. Further investigation revealed "multiple blunt force traumas" to the boy's body, including a fractured skull, ruptured spleen, broken ribs, and several other broken bones and abrasions. Accused of homicide, the man just had his case bound over to the Hamilton County grand jury.

A 14 year old girl has just been rescued and released from her bondage in Seattle Washington. She was brought to the United States by Afghan immigrants, who most likely bought her from her impoverished parents back in Afghanistan. Forced to work as a slave, the girl did the laundry, cooked the meals, minded the other household children, and oh yeah, was forced to have sex with the men of the house. Enslaved since 2006, it was only after neighbors recently realized what was happening at the home where the girl was being held that they helped her escape to safety and the immigrants who held her have all been arrested.

In the Bronx, New York homeless shelter where a homeless single father resided with his 8 month old son, neighbors and shelter staff became concerned after the father asked for an ambulance to be called for his infant. Bruising was evident on the baby, but the father insisted the child had fallen down. The baby died on the way to the hospital and police arrested the father after he made statements about punching his son in the stomach. Apparently, the father and son were not unknown to New York City's child protective services unit, as the baby had been to the hospital before with a broken arm. By all accounts, the man was seen to be a good father, but yet, that doesn't change the fact that he is now charged with manslaughter. A side note here would be that between 2004 to 2007, 38 children have died at New York's homeless shelters.

Tennessee once again, this time Memphis. It seems that there have been 12 children killed by one or both parents this year alone. In one instance, an 18 year old man furiously punched his girlfriend's 13 month old in the chest twice. She died on the way to the hospital as the man said while being arrested " She wouldn't stop crying." In another, a two month old died of a fractured skull after her father repeatedly punched her in the head. And particularly disgusting was the case of a two year old girl whose father has been charged with child murder after beating his daughter to death while attempting to potty train her. Authorities say there may have been sexual abuse occurring.

A psychopath in Tuscon, Arizona won't be seeing the light of day for a long time, maybe never, after pleading guilty to child porn charges. It seems the man and his wife liked to film little children engaging in sexual acts, and place the videos on the internet. When police raided their home, they also found 150 dogs that were being bred for dog fighting, $100,000, and 60 firearms, including automatic weapons. Just your typical American household I guess.

Here's the point. These despicable people should be buried deep inside the walls of some prison, or if found guilty and executed, buried in a grave so deep that future archaeologists will never find them. But could all of this have been avoided in the first place?

There has been much ridicule made of Nebraska's new child safe haven law. The law that allows for children of any age to be brought to area hospitals and left by parents who feel they are incapable of caring for them properly. Or parents who feel they may endanger their kids in some way. There was even coverage by the right wing media of a 'protest' against the law in Lincoln, the capitol city of Nebraska, but what the cameras didn't show was the fact that there were exactly 5, count them, 5 'protesters'.

The vast majority of the people in Nebraska are just fine with the law. If it will save one child's life, the scorn and ridicule are well worth it. Would it not seem to others then, that maybe their states should be re-examining their child safe haven laws to expand them? Or does the safety of children not really count to anyone other than those who actually work to pass and retain progressive laws such as Nebraska's? It seems as though the voices that are loudly braying about the idiocy of Nebraska's safe haven laws are the very same voices that are mysteriously silent when asked what their solution is. Child Protective Services in all 50 states are overwhelmed and can not respond to many cases. If people had a way to relinquish their children to safety, would that not free up case workers to respond to the cases of child abuse where the parents are in denial?

Think about this when you vote come November also. Which candidate would be more open to helping children and not fat cats? Which Senate and House candidates would pass a national safe haven law for children? Which State candidates? If the children of America are our future, then we must safeguard that national treasure as surely as we safeguard our money, our homes, or any other tangible valuable. Let the children cry, let the children suffer, and eventually, you can sit and watch America die.