We can talk about gun control until the cows come home, but it won't really help what is ailing this society. I know very few people who are so militant about gun rights that they feel certain restrictions should be placed on who is able to purchase a gun. I know that some exist, but they are the minority. Most will agree that the mentally ill and people with criminal histories shouldn't be allowed to have guns. The disagreements come on what other restrictions should be in place for law-abiding citizens. We have laws in place that should protect us from criminals and the insane. Those laws should be followed.
What we never really discuss after a tragedy as what occurred in Newtown, is where we place the value of human life in the grand scheme of things in our daily lives and our society. I am not even going to into the abortion discussion, because most people are immovable on this topic, and will remain that way, while there is always room for an epiphany, those are usually very personal episodes.
What I would like to talk about is the role of life in general. Recently a young mother was pregnant for the second time. She says that she had no idea that she was so. One night while on a family outing at the circus, she grabs her daughter and goes to use the lady's room. She sent a text to another family member to come get her daughter due to stomach issues. She then proceeds to give birth in that bathroom stall. She leaves her newborn son in the toilet, surrounded by his own blood and presumably his placenta, and goes home. The baby boy was found approximately 90 minutes later up to his neck in water and at a temperature of 85 degrees. Thank heavens the little boy is doing fine and is said to be developing normally.
Jessica Blackham, now 26, has given up her parental rights to the baby. I am sure by now he has been adopted, presumably to a loving family that realizes how precious this little boy really is.
Jessica has been judged in a court of law and has been sentenced. One year of house arrest, three years of probation, counseling, and faces random drug tests. Once she finishes her one year of house arrest, her five-year prison will be forgotten. So let me get this straight, she left a helpless newborn baby in a toilet full of blood and gets no jail time.
'Miss Blackham, you are not standard fare up here and I think your attorney's assessment that you will not be back is accurate,'
So said the judge who normally deals with crack and meth heads, reports show it took the judge a full couple of minutes to sentence her. He thought about her sentence that carefully.
While it is true that she had no prior criminal record that doesn't mean that absolves her from her crimes. She left that baby to die. Her own flesh and blood. She says that she has no memory of giving birth and denies even knowing she was pregnant. Now, didn't she gain any weight during this pregnancy? Most woman gain somewhere between 20 and 30 pounds. Didn't anyone else in her family notice that? If she was hiding weight gain, wouldn't that fly in the face of her testimony? Didn't she feel that baby kick? Did she not realize that she wasn't getting her periods anymore? While it is true that some women will have some bleeding during their entire pregnancy, that is pretty rare. I mean this is a woman who was pregnant once before and was 25 at the time of the birth.
Is it really so hard to believe that our children are growing up without a moral compass? Is is really so hard to understand that they don't see life as sacred and precious? This judge didn't and he is a grown man. This woman didn't and she is already a mother of another child. The only people who seemed to understand the importance of the that baby boy's life was the cleaning crew who found him and the doctors who saved his life that early morning. This baby has been further dehumanized by this sentance. His mother threw him away like he was trash.
A baby was left to die in toilet filled with blood, other bodily fluids, his own after birth, and water and the punishment is that she gets to sit in the comfort of her own home for a year. She can watch whatever television show she wants, she will sleep in her own bed, she can use the internet, she can have guests over. Heck I guess if she wanted to she could get pregnant again if she is so inclined. That isn't a punishment. Especially when you consider that she lives in state that has a law that if you leave your newborn at a hospital, church, or other safe environment, you will not be prosecuted. She could have picked up this baby and dropped him at any number of places and choose instead to leave him in filth to die.
You can take away more and more rights on gun ownership in this country all you want, until you change this, it won't accomplish a damn thing.
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