Here I was, going on like an IDIOT on Saturday night about how quiet it was - I found out, Sunday, why the city was so quiet Saturday night. And I am just sick, like everyone else in this area who has a heart - that's apparently not very many, unfortunately. And dear God, no one should have to bury their young - especially after going through what one of our families has gone through, nor should they suffer the total lack of compassion this city is showing for their loss. I'm becoming more and more convinced we're becoming a nation of monsters - desensitized to everything.
I can only wonder what this world is coming to - I have been talking with people all this evening about the awful thing that happened here this weekend and the even more awful behavior of our fellow citizens. We're feeling a little lost, especially considering some of the absolutely evil, ugly things that are being said. I am ASHAMED to admit I live where I live, tonight.
A child was brutalized Saturday night, and instead of reacting with sympathy and condolence, the some in rest of the city have responded with venom, a sick glee, several pronouncements of 'Good riddance - one less (fill in the blank)', and calling for isolation of all "those' people and to confine them to the area of town 'they' frequent, since all they know how to do is f***, rob the good god-fearing folk on the 'right' side of town, pop 'em out as fast as they can for welfare checks (I'm quoting here), and kill each other, etc." - I'm sure you get the point.
Here's what happened: a fourteen year old girl, along with a sixteen-year-old, was driven, reportedly by the 14-year-old's mother, to the home of a thirteen-year-old girl living in the area, and the 14-year-old stabbed her to death - nine wounds, two through the heart.
Sydney, the 13-year-old, was murdered on her own front porch at 7:30 pm Saturday night - her family couldn't get to her fast enough to save her. The killer and her friend were driven home immediately after the deed was done. Sad thing was, Sydney's parents were keeping tabs, and everything seemed fine - the girls were sitting on the front porch talking - so they decided to slip off for a second to the convenience store (Sydney's older brothers were there, after all) ... when the parents left, that's when they struck. The brothers immediately ran out of the house, called 911, then called the parents back - too late, too late ... the 14-year-old was arrested shortly after, on first-degree murder charge. No one else is being charged.
I got even sicker when I read the paper's version of things, as opposed to what I heard from people who knew what had gone on. The paper all but called the victim and killer (Montoya Harris) a couple of ghetto rats (that's what black girls and women are called here) fighting over their 'shared boyfriend'. THAT was a bald-faced lie intended to inflame the flamers. And it worked.
The 14-year-old girl that did the killing was the former girlfriend of a boy who had been liking the little 13-year-old victim, Sydney, whom she, Montoya, believed to be his NEW girlfriend - she wasn't, but it didn't matter, apparently. The 14-year-old had been harassing the 13-year-old victim for some weeks, making crank calls and threats.
Sydney was a bright, bubbly child, good student in middle school, volleyball team member, member of her church youth choir, attended sunday school, coming from a two-parent home - something the God-fearing citizens on the 'RIGHT' side of town consider CRITICAL to attaining the American Dream. That didn't keep the 'RIGHT' people from demonizing the little dead girl as a sexually promiscuous, out-of-control child who snuck out of the house, or slandering her parents as a dead-beat dad and welfare mom ... at least, until everyone who knew them or knew of them started howling like banshees and the parents themselves went on TV this afternoon and spoke out about all the misinformation and slander being heaped on the family ...
I have been shaking - I know full well how fortunate WE are - my family. This could have been my now-14-year-old niece - something similar happened here at my house this summer - or rather, it NEARLY happened ... same scenario - more or less. I gave a boy, my niece's friend, a ride home the week school was out - he missed the bus. Some jealous little girl saw the three of us leaving, and she started calling my niece and threatening her. I spoke with the girl (AND her mother), after I learned about it, as did my sister (it's her daughter) and asked her to quit - HA. Later on, the mother brought the girl and her 16-year-old sister to my house, to jump on my niece at her BIRTHDAY PARTY - I had already uninvited the girl, AND the boy, because of the girl. Long story short: I didn't let the girls in, and asked them all to leave - they didn't, so I called the cops. No more problem.
But, I feel guilty about our experience, somehow, for Sydney's sake - I met the family at a volley ball tournament last year. I doubt they'd remember - but I really liked them, and the children were well-mannered, literate, and likable, not loud, not uncouth, and certainly not uneducated - not at all the kind of people they're being made out to be.
Enough - I can't understand this, and I can't bear it. I am looking to find meaning in the meaningless - our world, at least in our area, has changed forever, and we are holding our children close.
Update - the local TV station has made a major story correction - perhaps there is some hope after all that there are more decent people that there seemed to be earlier today ...
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