"...AND IN THIS CORNER..."
In what seems to be
a never-ending contest to garner the World's Most Evil Person award, a
California couple has tossed their hat into the ring. As it turns out,
"ring" applies to this story in a way you could never imagine. In the past
few weeks we have been deluged with media coverage of the Jon-Benet Ramsey
case. This poor girls story has become Felliniesque with the capture of John
Karr, a loathsome excuse for a human who will likely turn out to be what is
now an almost run-of-the-mill lunatic. A would-be child molester too
delusional to commit a crime. It has been a case that captured the public
for myriad reasons. The mother, a seemingly vapid, though not criminal,
player in the story. Having placed her daughter in the pageant world, an
arena considered a dangerous place by most parents in this day and age, many
felt she was complicit through ignorance. However, sadly, tucked away in the
news room corner, are stories like the following that leave one grasping for
hope for all humanity.
In Sacramento, California Earl Joseph Christopher and his wife, Renecha
Marina Gulley held boxing matches as "spectator sport", their words, between
their 3 year old Godson, Christopher Thomas and his 5 year old brother. It
has taken just over two years for the case to reach trial. Christopher
Thomas died of brain injuries on July 19th, 2004. The 5 year old had
testified that Earl had "punched Christopher hard in the stomach" after one
bout, and after two weeks without medical attention, the two adults finally
sought help at a hospital. It was too late.
The story leads me almost immediately to violent fantasies about how I would
administer some sort of "justice" to these two deprived individuals.
Moreover, it leaves me wondering how crooked and broken a trail one must
follow through life to be led to a place where you could do that to a child.
Imagine, forcing children to endure a violent boxing match, inflicting
injuries, brother on brother, and to be on the sidelines, as if at a
baseball game, cheering and hooting. Even as I write this, my ire is
inspired. I wonder about a society that harbours people like this, that
nobody noticed anything awry, or did and chose not to get involved. How
long, and to what degree, do we tolerate the increasing voracity and
frequency of violence against children? I'm wondering if there was someone
who knew something and looked the other way. How does that person feel now?
The crime occurred in the Rancho Cordova apartment complex. Was there no
noise, no signs at all?
The trail of waste that people like this leave behind goes far beyond the
immediate family. They suffer the most, a parent loses a child. A brother
loses a brother that he was forced to fight with several times a week. Like
the ripples from a cast stone, the damage spreads out, finally, to everyone.
Parents become distrustful of other adults. Children can't trust adults, and
it's not just strangers anymore. And with every passing, sordid tale, from
Jon-Benet to Jessica Lundsford to Jeffrey Curley to Elizabeth Smart and on
and on, we all become more numb to it. And, consequently, more accepting. It
is human nature. If you saw a 600 pound bear on your picnic table, it would
be shocking...get the camera...tell the neighbors. If it happened every day
for three months, you would be sitting at the table, scratching the bear's
neck and reading the paper. It's not unusual anymore and so...not shocking.
I fear that there is an insipid enemy at work. It is not a person, or group
of people. It is not a rogue state. It is not France...well, maybe it is
France. It is the default human condition of complacency. I don't pretend to
know how to stop, or at least, curtail it. I don't even know if it can be
stopped. Our legal system seems to refuse to get serious about anything. Law
enforcement, on a state and local level, seems too busy with the day-to-day
stuff to give it any attention, or they're on traffic detail. This is why,
as with so many of today's social cancers, it comes down to the rest of us.
As with terrorism, we need to be vigilant. It's a new world, you have to pay
attention. You also need to reach out, get outside yourself. If something
doesn't seem right in the neighborhood, check it out. "I don't want to get
sued", is a common refrain when people offer reasons for not getting
involved. I suppose there is some merit to that, and we can thank the
frivolous lawsuit industry for that. Yet, I wish someone in Sacramento had
risked a lawsuit one warm July night. Had someone done so, there may be two
more brothers in the world looking forward to their futures, instead of a
dead 3 year old and a surviving brother who is surely broken for life.