A couple of days ago, a 9 year old little girl came up missing… In recent years, I’ve noticed a drastic increase in missing persons cases that are children… and way too many stories about children coming up dead. My oldest child is nine years old… she will be 10 in February. I look at her and I cannot imagine how it must feel for a parent to realize their child has gone missing… Just thinking about gives my heart a feeling of terror. There is no nightmare comparable to that reality… to face the fact that we are living in a world full of rapists and murderers… a world full of individuals who are sick and twisted and who prey on the innocent and defenseless members of our society – they take advantage of the weaknesses in the elderly and the young.
It’s a haunting thought… how can a child fall victim to such a heinous crime?
Then… the little girl’s ‘body’ is found – and it is not a middle aged, mentally challenged, psychotic man with prior child-related offenses on his record that we’re glaring down at looking for answers; no, there is a 15 year old child in the hotseat who is apparently responsible for the death of this little girl. So now, not only do we have to be wary of pathetic pedophiles; not only are demented adult sickos after our children, but now – now, we must protect our children from CHILDREN as well, and not just the bully kind that wants a buck at lunch every day.
My mind takes me back to a time I once heard of where villages were involved in raising – and protecting – children. During that time, children could play in the street, walk to town, stay outside from dawn to dusk riding bikes and being mischievous – and there was no question of whether or not they would make it home at night. Now, we barely know our neighbors and we’re programmed to get offended if we receive any type of ‘bad’ report from someone else about our children. We don’t want people in our business… Today, we’re doing good if we manage to wave to the people on our block a couple of times a week. How many of your neighbors can you call by name {without them wondering if you’ve been pilfering through their mail to get their information}?
I personally believe that we have traded our safety for privacy at a very precious price. We’ve sacrificed the security of the village and now, we’re losing our children – in more ways than one.
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You are absolutely right. I lived in one of those villages, Reed Village, aka “The Village.” I never thought about being hurt, snatched up, or my life being interrupted in any way. We felt connected and protected by everyone in our neighborhood. We knew that our neighbors looked out for us. This is such a sad story, and we’ll discuss “What’s Happening to our Children” next week on Problem Solvers weekly BTR broadcast.