It's Sunday, and on Sundays I promised never to rant, only to rave. So, today, I'm going to rave about columnist Bob Greene. I first became aware of Mr. Greene via his column which I read regularly in the
Chicago Tribune. He's an award-winning writer. He's not been a perfect soul–whom among us is? His columns cut to the heart of our society and point out some of the most poignant stories. Most recently, I read one of his contributions to CNN entitled, "Why did no one notice the boy was missing?" (
source) Don't visit and read the story of Christian Choate. It will make you sick to your stomach and angry – probably angry beyond belief. It will make you angry at his mother, father, step mother, the town where he died, the state that oversees the laws designed to protect children, and American society in general. If you can read Christian's story without shedding tears, good luck. I've been sad ever since reading it. I don't know why I read it to tell you the truth, but the headline sort of nagged at me.
Probably the thing, however, that stuck most with me and has haunted me since is that there is no one out there doing anything really for kids like Christian. It made me think of the trafficking in kids all over the world. Happy Sunday. It made me think of the countless hours I and many others have spent on RantRave trying to do our part in heightening the discussion on women's reproductive rights and trying to end the need for abortions. I'm not trying to say that Christian might have been better off had he been aborted before he had to live a life that most certainly was worse than any imaginable form of Biblical hell, what I am saying is that someone, anyone needs to start spending at least an equivalent amount of time on the plight of the kids who have been born as they spend fighting to protect those yet to be. And that's really the irony I draw from Bob Greene's column. It took two years of being frozen in a shallow grave of quick-drying cement with a Bible on his chest before anyone even went to look for Christian. Vehement, angry, people all over North America are spending what seems like their life's resources fighting abortion, but what are they doing to protect the kids who are living? They won't vote for uniform health care. They hunt abortion doctors, block clinics, and write extensively of the horrors of Planned Parenthood, but where were they when Christian was being tortured in a dog cage in diapers with his little hands spray painted black by his legal guardians? Now, Christian's guardians are soon to be put on trial for his murder and other charges.
Bob Greene wants to know why no one noticed, I want to know why no one cares, why no one cares about the children who are living. So, I salute Bob Greene for bringing Christian's plight to light and causing people who read his story to take a step back and **** priorities. Should we fight for the rights of the unborn? Absolutely. We should. We should fight for education and empowerment to put an end to the practice of young, unprepared couples from becoming pregnant. But, let's spend at least as much time if not more working to protect the children who are already born so that no child should endure the horrors of young Christian Choate, may the universe protect his energetic soul and offer him something better than we could here on earth.