It's Time To Protect The Kids, Dammit

As punishment for eating a "forbidden" candy bar, a 9-year-old girl was forced to run in her back yard.  For three hours.  And then she dropped, and started having seizures.  She later died from dehydration.  Three hours.  I'm surprised she was even able to keep going for that long.  It makes sense to me that she was so scared she thought she was running for her life.  Which, of course, makes her death all the more depressing.

The 12-year-old who was found naked and eating from a garbage can was kept naked so she wouldn't get out of the car.  Her mother forced her to stay there while she worked as an aide at a local school.  I imagine she couldn't get her daughter enrolled without an address.  The little girl was wandering, naked and eating some bread she had found.  She was basically caged like an animal, and so hungry she wandered out naked in February.

Those are the main two from this week.  As the sane ones, we need to keep our eyes open.  Someone did the right thing and called 911, and that poor naked child is clothed and eating real meals.  Nobody saved the first girl, and she died at the hands of two people who should have loved her more than anyone (or anything) else.  Because I am constantly scanning small news sources, I am so weary of articles about kids, yet I am compelled to read them.  We're not in a place to promise kids happy ever after.  We should  be able to promise our willingness to help when we can and make that call when we must.  We should be able to let them expect a place to sleep and food to eat.  If we can't give them anything else, it's meeting those most basic needs so they can survive to conquer.