A mother in Dallas was sentenced for an extreme case of child abuse. She received 99 years, so her children will never have to worry about her walking through the door and hurting them again.
What the mother did, beating and gluing her child”s hands to the wall as punishment for a toilet training accident is inexcusable.
But I can”t let society off the hook in this and all cases of child abuse. It is interesting when you think about TV”s or even cell phones do come with an instruction manual so big we probably never even read all the information.
When a child is born there is no instruction book. Even more profound is no one really knows what kind of parent they might be until the birth of a child.
There are warning signs in terms of potential child abusers. Warning signs usually visible to the parent and or society. There is a cycle of abuse. It is a struggle for someone who was abused as a child to not become an abuser. Not everyone abused ends up being an abuser but a good number do.
What can we do in a society where are children are being abused? And what constitutes abuse? What a list, violent TV and video games, some lyrics to music, lack of funding for youth programs, lack of funding for education, lack of support for those who have dedicated their lives to helping young people, guns, violence, war, yes the list can go on.
What can be done to stop the cycle of abuse? The lessons learned by youth in our society tell them often adults resort to violence to settle issues, attack political messages give a negative spin to expressing differences, guns seem to be the pervasive equalizer. All of these issues and more need to stop before we can stop the cycle of violence.
As adults we need to get all of our children are our children. We have to be responsible for what is taught to our children in terms of violence vs. non-violence. If we know of children being abused we have a responsibility to step in and save children from being hurt.
How many more stories do we need to hear before we realize our future generation is being hurt and we are all being hurt.
Stop the abuse of children now!
Sue Williams
Kelseyville
