I dunno about messed up, but that's really sad. That poor mother!
I thought you could drop off a baby at a police station or at a library and no questions would be asked, it would serve as a drop off place if you really can't afford to take care of the child. Then again I thought it was only for newborn babies, basically to prevent the babies from ending up in a dumpster somewhere.
If she only knew spanish maybe she wasn't aware of it. Who knows. Hope that kid ends up in a nice family, because I doubt he'll ever see his mom again.
Why? It seems the mother, though a bit stupid for leaving him at a Wal-Mart (of all places), cared for the child enough to include supplies and such. It also seams that she abandoned him only because of financial and housing reasons, not "I hate my child." reasons.
I won't pretend to understand the shit she's going through, but it's pretty damn irresponsible to toss her child to the wind and hope someone catches him. If you abandon your kid at a Wal-Mart, you're a bad parent.
Eh. I guess I have more sympathy for her. I think it's just a shitty situation all around. I'd rather her abandon him and him live a good life with another family, than him gradually learning how much of a failure his life is while trapped in poverty with his hopeless mother. I'm sure that's exactly what she was thinking, too. If she had just wanted to abandon her child, she would have left him with no note and no diapers or anything else. I feel bad for the kid for being born into such a shitty household, but I got the feeling that the woman who left him was heartbroken to do so.
And don't you know, Walmarts are the hang-out places for smaller towns. I've heard of towns having singles night at Walmart! The perfect place to leave a cute little kid who needs to be adopted! [/sarcasm]
I'll bet you can still put toddlers up for adoption though. Or maybe she could have applied for government aid programs. I'm just saying there are responsible ways of dealing with a tough situation, and there are irresponsible ways.
1. I don't buy the "only spoke Spanish" excuse. If you live in America, you make an effort to learn English. That's it. That's our official language, it's what is spoken in our government and by the majority of our population. Not making the effort to learn the language is lazy, irresponsible, and disgusting. It hinders our progress as a nation when immigrants make no effort to communicate.
2. Common sense trumps any other excuse she might have for going to Wal Mart. Yes, she left him with supplies, yes, she left him in a populated area. But that is still no excuse. I'm not very familiar with Mexican culture, but I'm fairly confident that they don't do that in their culture. I'm sure they have similar rules and programs that allow you options for caring for your child, at the very least putting him up for adoption. She is unfit as a parent, and I think the child is better off never seeing her again, unless the mother makes some radical changes in her life.
OK, Here's how you do it. FIRST: you sneak into the country and have a baby in a hospital. The baby is a citizen with a social security number; this allows the mother to live in the country and collect welfare from the govt. NEXT: you abandon the child and continue to collect the welfare checks. If you put the child up for adoption, that leaves a paper trail and you can no longer get your free money.
1. I don't buy the "only spoke Spanish" excuse. If you live in America, you make an effort to learn English. That's it. That's our official language, it's what is spoken by the majority of our population.
Not for long, my friend.
With that said, I completely agree with everything in your post.
I am very aware, Spanish is growing quite quickly. It may sound conceited, but it's the truth; English is by far the world's most important language. It's the international language of business. Most other people in developed nations of the world that do not speak English as a first language study it for a while as a second language. In many countries proficiency is a prerequisite to enter college.
And come on... Spanish and English are so incredibly similar, you have to be retarded to not be able learn at least a few important phrases.
MINEOLA, Texas (AP) -- In the windowless front rooms of a former day care center in a tiny Texas community, children as young as 5 were fed powerful painkillers they knew as "silly pills" and forced to perform sex shows for a crowd of adults.
Two people have already been convicted in the case. Now a third person with ties to the club, previously known in town only as a swingers group, is set to go on trial Monday not far from Mineola, population 5,100.
"This really shook this town," said Shirley Chadwick, a longtime resident of Mineola. "This was horrible."
Patrick Kelly, 41, is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, tampering with physical evidence and engaging in organized criminal activity.
In all, six adults have been charged in connection with the case, including a parent of the three siblings involved.
Jurors this year deliberated less than five minutes before returning guilty verdicts against the first two defendants, who were accused of grooming the kids for sex shows in "kindergarten" classes and passing off Vicodin as "silly pills" to help the children perform.
Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Mayo were sentenced to life in prison. Kelly also faces a life sentence if convicted, and Smith County prosecutors hope for another swift verdict.
Thad Davidson, Kelly's attorney, said his client passed a lie-detector test proving his innocence and worries about getting a fair trial in Tyler, 25 miles southeast of Mineola, which is in Wood County.
"I think it's impossible to get a fair trial within 80 miles of Smith County," Davidson said.
Mineola, about 80 miles east of Dallas, is a close-knit, conservative bean-processing town of with more than 30 churches. Residents there want to put the scandal behind them as quickly as possible.
The one-story building where prosecutors say four children -- the three siblings, now ages 12, 10 and 7, and their 10-year-old aunt -- were trained to perform in front of an audience of 50 to 100 once a week has been vacant since the landlord ousted the alleged organizers in 2004.
Down a slight hill is a retirement home, and even closer is the office of the local newspaper. Doris Newman, editor of The Mineola Monitor, said rumors of swinger parties spread around town but that no one mentioned children being involved.
Newman, who can see the building from her office window, said she remembers the parking lot filling up with more than a dozen cars at night.
In August 2004, an editorial under the headline "Sex In the City" opined that if the swingers left quietly, "we'll try and forget they've infiltrated our town with their set of moral standards."
"It's not that we're trying to look the other way," Newman said. "But there's a lot more to Mineola than that."
According to a Mineola police report, the department first investigated a complaint in June 2005 in which the siblings' foster mother said one of the girls described dancing toward men and another child saying that "everybody does nasty stuff in there."
In the second trial, Child Protective Services caseworker Kristi Hachtel testified, "I've seen a lot and I never in my wildest dreams imagined this. They were preyed upon in probably one of the most heinous ways possible."
The children are now doing better, the welfare agency said.
"Through counseling and therapy sessions, these children are now finally feeling secure and safe," agency spokeswoman Shari Pulliam wrote in an e-mail.
Permanent custody of the three siblings was given to John and Margie Cantrell. This week, prosecutors in California charged John Cantrell with sexually assaulting a child in the state 18 years ago. Margie Cantrell said her husband is innocent.
Kelly's attorney moved Friday asking to postpone the trial in light of the allegations against Cantrell, a state witness. Texas Child Protective Services said it would be "common" for the agency to investigate.
The Rev. Tim Letsch is opening a church in the yellow-plastered building where the children were abused. He acknowledges that building a congregation might be difficult because of the stigma attached to the property.
"You got to decide whether you're willing to forgive those kind of things," Letsch said. "It's a hard deal. Especially for a spiritual person to walk in and say, 'This happened here."
First it was drinking. Then it was cell phones. Now text-messaging is the latest behind-the-wheel activity lawmakers are trying to curb.
"All of my friends do it," says Sonalie Patel, 17, who lives in Elk Grove Village, Ill., and admits that she too occasionally sends texts despite a ban on cell phone use for drivers under 19 and adults with learners permits. "It's like an epidemic."
Indeed, a Nationwide Insurance survey found that 18% of cell phone owners text and drive and that drivers between the ages of 16 and 30 are the most frequent texters. Young adults have even posted videos of themselves texting while driving on YouTube, and nearly 600 people have joined a Facebook group called "I Text Message People While Driving And I Haven't Crashed Yet!"
Cavalier attitudes aside, texting while driving has been cited as a likely factor in fatal accidents from coast to coast, prompting more than 20 states so far this year to consider banning the activity. Washington, New Jersey, Minnesota and the District of Columbia already prohibit texting while driving. And Louisiana is poised to follow suit, with similar legislation awaiting the governor's signature. On June 16, Alaska's governor signed a law that prohibits drivers from texting or watching videos. (It's still okay, however, to stare at a GPS device and talk on a cell phone.)
But these laws may not do much to curb texting while driving. A texting ban is difficult to enforce because, unlike cell phones that drivers hold up to their ear, texting is often done with the phone held lower down on or propped on drivers' laps. "I have a hard time determining whether or not they are using the speaker phone feature or whether or not they are actually texting," says Christopher Hopf, a police officer in Mendham Borough, N.J.
Given the challenges police face in trying to enforce cell-phone restrictions, it's no wonder that a study released this month by the non-profit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that North Carolina's cell-phone ban for drivers under 18 did not deter them from talking or texting. In fact, cell phone use actually increased slightly after the law took effect on December 1, 2006, from 11% to 11.8% about five months later.
Perhaps most telling, only 100 cell-phone violations were issued in North Carolina to teen drivers in 2007 — a detail that may be of interest to California as it gears up for a similar cell-phone ban for teen drivers under 18 that will take effect July 1.
"It's always tougher to enforce a law that is targeted at an age group," says Anne McCartt, the institute's Senior Vice President of Research and author of the North Carolina study. "It can be difficult for enforcement officers to know for sure whether someone is covered by the law."
But the study also found that enforcement is not the only key to success with cell-phone laws. Public perception of enforcement also plays an important role.
"It's not just writing tickets — it's publicizing that tickets are being written," says McCartt, who notes the success of the national seat belt enforcement campaign "Click It or Ticket" as an example. "A little bit of enforcement goes a long way if it's publicized."
One state where a lot of public attention is being paid to texting while driving is New York. After several fatal accidents there involving text messaging, State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz says constituents began calling his office to demand action. He is now sponsoring a text message ban in the state assembly; the state senate has already passed a similar bill.
Ortiz admits he tried texting while driving once — just to see what it was like. As he expected, his car swerved as he attempted to type and drive. "Let me tell you, I will not do it again," he says.
I've played Tactics Advance and Pokémon while driving, but in my defense, I was driving home from buying the games and couldn't wait to play them. Also they're turn-based and don't require constant screen-staring.
The most I can manage while driving is taking a coat off. And only when I'm on the highway driving straight for a long way. Doing anything with a cell phone or any other device is totally out for me.
I can do anything as long as it does not require me to look. Actually, I can probably do those things as well, but I choose not to. I've tired my shoes, played with teh radio, eaten, drank, gone to the bathroom, talked on the phone, gotten head, taken off a coat, changed my pants, and even adjusted my mirrors while driving. But none of that requires looking away from the road for more than half a second, and that's where it really becomes dangerous. It doesn't matter how well you can drive straight without looking, if the asshole in front you you stops when you're not looking, you're gonna hit him.
Comments
I think you'll find the pound is currently at $1.97.
I thought you could drop off a baby at a police station or at a library and no questions would be asked, it would serve as a drop off place if you really can't afford to take care of the child. Then again I thought it was only for newborn babies, basically to prevent the babies from ending up in a dumpster somewhere.
If she only knew spanish maybe she wasn't aware of it. Who knows. Hope that kid ends up in a nice family, because I doubt he'll ever see his mom again.
Although I guess maybe in that case, she would have taken him to a pawn shop in hope of gettin some green...
...therefore I choose green.
2. Common sense trumps any other excuse she might have for going to Wal Mart. Yes, she left him with supplies, yes, she left him in a populated area. But that is still no excuse. I'm not very familiar with Mexican culture, but I'm fairly confident that they don't do that in their culture. I'm sure they have similar rules and programs that allow you options for caring for your child, at the very least putting him up for adoption. She is unfit as a parent, and I think the child is better off never seeing her again, unless the mother makes some radical changes in her life.
Not for long, my friend.
With that said, I completely agree with everything in your post.
And come on... Spanish and English are so incredibly similar, you have to be retarded to not be able learn at least a few important phrases.
Text-Messaging Behind the Wheel