Thursday, July 04, 2002

Keep prying hands away from your Cherry Garcia, or any other pint of ice cream that is simply not to be shared: for $5.50, you can buy a lock for your treasure. 7:44:02 PM

I wasn't planning to comment on this quote from the article about deaths from heat exposure, but I've been thinking about it quite a bit today: Janette Fennell, director of the San Francisco-based group KIDS 'N CARS, said such deaths are easily preventable. But it's wrong to assume the parents responsible are negligent and uncaring, she said. "We've had quite a few cases where this has happened to caring, loving, doting parents because of our stressful, fast-paced lifestyle," Fennell said Her point, well-taken and well-intended, misses the mark. Loving a child and being neglectful are not mutually exclusive. Simple case in point: we recently bought a kiddie pool for the back yard. Water can't be much more than 12-18 inches, but I recognize the potential danger in an otherwise mundane situation. Now I'm far from a perfect parent -- I fully admit to occasionally neglecting my kids when I need to get the dishes done, or want to put in a quick bit of work, and the TV-as-babysitter kicks in, although even then, they're always within earshot. I absolutely love my kids, but what if I decided to leave them alone for maybe fifteen or twenty minutes when they're out by the pool? What if one or both drown? Is that just an accident for which I should be excused because life the universe and everything keep me so busy? It's too easy to blame something else, something vague and unformed (the economy is always a popular scapegoat) than to acknowledge that for all the love and caring and nurturing a parent might provide, a moment (or half an hour, or three hours, or eight) of neglect is all it takes. Perhaps that's the greatest tragedy. That's it. I'm done soapboxing on this particular topic for awhile. 5:41:12 PM

It's about freedom from tyranny, no? A move away from King George, and the monarchy, and religious persecution. A declaration of independence, as it were. There's some pretty heady stuff in that document, well worth the time to sit and read and think: all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 10:39:38 AM