As usual this time of day, I start searching for my next post. Usually, something jumps out at me within a few minutes and I’m suddenly presented with my next subject. Tonight, however, there were more than a couple references to what’s now just become this post. This is one of those posts that leave me staring at the blank Word document wondering how I can pull this off without going off on some tangent filled with pure anger and a degree of hatred. Here are the three headlines:

WOMAN GETS LIFE SENTENCE FOR SEX WITH 5-YEAR-OLD

Woman Gets Prison for Secondhand Crack Smoke That Sickens Two Year Old

North Carolina Police Find 3-Week-Old Baby Living in Active Meth Lab

I can remember thinking when my son was born of how incredible his life would be and how he could affect every person he ever met. My goal, I decided, was to ensure his presence in someone’s life would be better because of him. It never once occurred to me that there would be so much misery and disbelief that exists in today’s society. I look at him and am just amazed at the incredible human he’s become. He’s chasing his dreams, he’s pursuing his education and he has a family that would kill over him…and we’d probably hurt one another trying to be the first to get to source who has jeopardized him in any way.

What adult could allow such evil to happen? At what point does someone decide that it’s OK to rape a 5 year old because her husband made her do it? And with all of the horror stories associated with meth labs and the destruction left behind, including risking entire neighborhoods, innocent people who might be walking past a meth lab disguised as a home and the kids who have no choice but to breathe it in, is an addiction so powerful that the human spirit can justify the repercussions? What stories were told when these people were caught and arrested? What stories did they tell their lawyers? Were they so far gone that they had no interest in even assisting their lawyers? In a world where criminal attorneys have learned to expect anything and to prepare themselves for the dark sides of human nature, along with the psychologists who are asked to provide a disturbing snapshot of their mental health and the teams who must go in and detox entire buildings, you’re left feeling defeated and with no confidence in people in general. And then you realize that this one perfection you’ve managed in this life is finding his own way and it’s then you realize you wish he’d never had to grow up. As a little one, you can protect him and he’s actually SUPPOSED to have his family running interference for him and fighting his battles, but once he’s grown and pursuing his own passions and dreams, the best we can hope for is he’s not ever one of those innocent people taking a walk in front of a cleverly disguised meth lab as it explodes.

Life in prison for these folks? The imperfect human in me hopes that it’s a miserable existence.

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