So terribly Wrong

I'm angry. No, I'm beyond angry. I'm raging.

A year ago I was watching the local news (as is the norm for me, while preparing dinner). I paused when I heard a familiar name mentioned and gasped when I heard "authorities were dispatched to the home where a newborn baby was discovered dead". My mind raced and I immediately felt horrible for them. I hadn't seen them around in several years but I knew the family of the father (as they lived in the same area I grew up in).

Fast forward a year. I'm again cooking (peeling potatoes this time) and hear the name again. I immediately hurry to the tele and watch in shock as the reporter explained the couple, both the man and wife were arrested. The Father on charges of Capital Murder, the Mother chemical endangerment. Details were finally released on the baby. The little boy was born with cocaine in his system as his Mother obviously smoked crack prior to labor, he died of blunt force trauma. To add insult to injury, this family was cleared of charges following the death of their 6 month old a couple of years ago.

When I first heard this news, I was holding my own infant daughter. I looked down into her little face and I felt immense despair. How can anyone do something such as this? I realize they were both probably high as a kite on crack at the time (as the Father has openly admitted it) but still...that's your child. And I have to ask the question, how in the world is the Mother getting off so lightly? "chemical endangerment"? Please!

This is the very reason some people should not be parents. It's a true crime that some couples have so much love and longing for a child of their own and others murder a newborn baby while high on drugs. What is the world coming to?