Is Our Society Putting Humanity Out with the Trash?

Did you ever see a cardboard box or plastic garbage bag on the side of the road and wonder what was in it? I've always had this strange feeling driving by these objects that there might be a litter of kittens or something worse inside. Is that morbid? Am I over sensitive?

Monday, June 30, 2007 Police find the bodies of two toddlers in the apartment of a South Carolina woman. The children, who had been left in the car all day while their mother worked, were found wrapped in garbage bags under a sink in the apartment. Police took the woman to a hospital for fear that she might harm herself. She hasn't been able to make any comment and her lawyers say they are concerned with her health first, and her legal situation will play itself out. She was charged with homicide by child abuse. Around 340 children have died in the past decade from being left in the car.

To watch this on the news, your first thought as you see her crying at the hearing is probably not a nice thought. You are probably thinking what an evil or ignorant person this is to leave her kids in a hot car all day. It's in our nature to point the finger and feel self righteous when other people make mistakes. Have you ever really thought about what the circumstances surrounding the incident might have been?

I know sometimes it's easy to believe that everyone in the world has the same circumstances as you, and that everyone thinks the same as you, and has the same problems as you, and the same resources as you, but they don't. We've become so indifferent to human nature that we've forgotten how cruel the world can be.

Ask yourself some questions. Why did this woman have her kids with her while she worked? Could it have been because she didn't have child care? Could she not afford a baby sitter? What about the father of the children? Where was he? Where were the grandparents, the friends of the family, the village that it takes to raise children? Why was she even working in the first place if she was such an abusive terrible mother? I suppose that she was working to feed and support the two kids on her own. How did we get to the point where women end up in no win situations such as these?