PittGirl:"Who’s responsible? I am not responsible. You are not responsible. The rich are not responsible. The City of Pittsburgh is not responsible. Responsibility rests squarely with the two young mothers who kissed their kids goodnight for the last time and walked out of the house, closing the door behind them."
The following are from comments:
"The real problem in this society is that we don’t hold people
accountable for their actions. We try to place the blame elsewhere. Not this
time. It is perfectly clear who responsible.""Um, hi, I’m 25 years old, like those two ‘mothers’, and I’ve made a very conscious choice to be careful not to get knocked up even once, let alone 4 times (with different men, natch), and produce 4 babies that I can’t take care of. I make my choices, you make yours, how dare you blame anyone other than those mothers? Seriously, if you can’t handle birth control, then STOP HAVING SEX. "
"First of all, if the mother’s hadn’t MADE THE CHOICE to get pregnant with all these children they could have been better able to support themselves and maybe the first child they had (because, big or little, we all make mistakes). Secondly, the mothers MADE THE CHIOCE to leave their children alone. Pittsburgh didn’t make them and the rich didn’t make them. "
"No..no probation for these women. They need to be locked away for murder. No death penalty for them. They need solitary confinement and the only thing that they should have is a picture of the children on the wall to remind them why they will be in prison for the rest of their lives. These children are at peace now and away from the terrible life that had been subjected to."
"if it’s proven to be the mother’s fault, they should be subjected to the same horror that those children had to endure. Burn ‘em at the stake. We start doing “eye-for-an-eye” punishments, maybe people will stop and think before they continue to do stupid things."
"You lost them because two irresponsible brain dead women decided it was better to party than take reasonable care of their offspring. When will you sacrifice them to God???? When those mothers go to church instead of a bar."
"I say take the remaining kids away and show no mercy to those “moms”.
I'm not even sure where to begin. There's so much hatred and loathing poured out in these comments, it is frightening. They seem to hate these two mothers, but have even more hatred for a community that is struggling to reconcile itself to a tragedy. But just one tragedy among many ... children having children being one of the first.
There is no easy place to begin, Sue. I think we should seek to understand first -- and though an easily spoken and oft-abused platitude, I believe it is one of the most difficult challenges of the human spirit.
ReplyDeleteThis means, of course, not only trying to figure out what fuels the community activist's inflammatory remarks, but comments from those who give the impression that thety believe themselves to be morally superior because they use "birth control."
And there's the rub.
Yikes. I visited the blog and read through the comments. Why is it that people jump so readily for the chance to have a villain? The off with their heads attitude is nothing but disturbing and reveals many larger issues within our society.
ReplyDeleteDoes all of this reaction to a tragedy mean that the result will be action toward preventing problems in the future? Will all the concerned do gooders take the necessary steps to aid the children in need in the city? I doubt it.
I don't question the mothers in the story as much as I do the folks who respond with hatred and fear. That is more frightening to me than a couple negligent moms.