Has This Country Lost it's Collective Sense of Morality?

In absolutely NO civilized culture that I know of has it ever been acceptable to murder your offspring. [ Don't you DARE bring up Abraham and Isaac...that was a test. Yes, Abe was willing to sacrifice [not murder] his son. I think there's a difference, but you'd have to consult a Rabbi, or some kind of other biblical scholar for a more detailed opinion. My own personal belief is that it's actually an allegory. I don't think a kind and loving God would require that kind of sacrifice, even as a test, from a believer.]
OK, now that we're back form THAT tangential road trip [do y'all enjoy those as much as I do?], how in the name of all that's decent and sane have we allowed our Society to degenerate to the point that something like[steel yourself, these are UGLY] this or this could occur? I'll wait while you go read these stories. I warned you, didn't I? But it was necessary for you to read them in order to have the following discussion.

The first story is about an "immigrant" you say, so we're not really responsible for how he turned out. Let's see, Ol' Luong is 37, he's been HERE, in the good Old US of A since 1984. by my calculations, that means he's been in our Culture and had time to adapt to our Norms and Mores since he was um...14. I'd say, since he had time to marry, have 3 kids with a woman, and become addicted to CRACK... he had become a full-fledged Southern Red Neck of the first Frickin' order. He had gone through puberty,his teens and his 20's here, fer pete's sake. This is not some CULTURAL thing. This is a Drug Addled-Abusive Spouse-Inadequate Parent-Loathsome human[I use the term loosely]being thing. Where were the extended family members to support the Mother? Where was the insular Asian community we hear so much about?...you know the one I mean, the one that intermarries, doesn't like to assimilate more than is necessary to work, speaks their native language in front of groups of English speakers, starts their own branches of English language churches, so they don't have to worship with Americans, and is generally uncooperative in investigations by ANY Law Enforcement agency.

I do not mean to paint all Asian immigrants or the 2nd and 3rd gen Americans of Asian descent with this broad brush. I realize many, many AAs come here and immediately begin to assimilate. They are not the kind of people I am talking about. I am talking about the immigrants who come to America for the benefits, but try to recreate the very social structures they left behind, to the point of refusing to mingle with Americans if they can avoid doing so.

Anyway, back to the story. If either one of these parents, or any member of their extended family had reached out to any of the plethora of Social Service agencies to help women and children at risk... this did NOT have to happen. If they had made more of an effort to assimilate, beyond giving their children American names, this story did NOT have to end this way. Bayou La Batre may be a fishing community, shoot anyone who saw Forrest Gump know that, but I'm sure there are police, a Prosecutor's office and Alabama has some version of Restraining orders, or Protective orders. Why shoot, I'll bet there's even a Women's and Children's Shelter in Mobile. You see, what the news story didn't say, but what I know, what most LEOs will tell you, what most anybody will tell you who has worked with abusers/abused is that they don't suddenly JUMP right into throwing the kids off a frellin' bridge! Even if he IS smokin' crack. No my friends, Luong led up to this act of barbarity. Someone should have seen this comin' like a Mack truck bearin' down on those babies. There were TWO adult women livin' in that house who are as responsible as Luong for the death of those precious children. If just one of those cowardly bitches had shown some spine, they'd have asked for help and gotten those chirrens out of danger the first time he hit the oldest one. Because I guarandamntee you he had hit, or slapped, or thrown, or otherwise abused that oldest child, the one who was NOT his bio child, before. It will eventually come out, with many tears and recriminations, I'm sure, but it will come out.

Okey, Dokey, let us move on to waste of skin and plasma #2... the woman in Washington, D.C. who was found, by Deputy U.S. Marshalls when they came to evict her, to be in an apartment with 4 decomposing bodies. At this time the police are working on the assumption that the bodies are her daughters. What kind of creature kills its own young, then lives with the corpses? More and more I read stories online or in the paper or hear them on the news of Mothers killing their children. This mystifies me, it truly does. I simply cannot understand women, in their right minds, who do this.

Bear with me as I go off on a tangent about Post-Partum Psychosis. I believe that Post-Partum Psychosis is a legitimate psych diagnosis; especially for women with a history of clinical Depression or Bi-Polar Disorder. Research studies have shown that these types of women are at high risk for post-partum depression and psychosis. Each pregnancy increases that risk. So, in those cases, I understand. I don't understand why FAMILY members and INSURANCE companies refuse to get help for them when they are delusional, but that's another rant.

I think in this case in D.C. we can safely set aside the possibility this particular Mother was suffering from Post-Partum Psychosis. Her daughters ranged in age from 4 to 17. Now, this woman is 33, and her oldest is 17 so let's do the math; She had that child when she was 16. Then over the next 17 years she had three more children. The five of them lived in one of the poorest apartment complexes in one of the poorest sections in one of the most crime ridden cities in our country. Did you notice that the man who lived next door, the one who wanted to get his name in the paper [and no doubt got some face time on the local D.C. news channels as well], admitted he had A: not seen any of his next-door neighbor's children since the Summer months and B: had been smellin' somethin' funky comin' through his vents, but just assumed it was dead mice. WAKE UP and SMELL the DEAD and DECOMPOSING bodies you incompetent, apathetic MORON!!! And how about the woman who didn't mind being quoted saying that folks around there minded their own business and didn't ask any questions.

Maybe it's time people around there DID start askin' a few DAHM questions. Maybe it's time folks around there started to show a little concern for their neighbors, especially the CHILDREN. For a culture that shows no concern for it's children is a culture that has lost all hope. Take the children from them, the ones young enough to save and remold into civilized humans and then Isolate and Abandon the rest before they drag down the rest of your Society, they have become SAVAGES.

In D.C. we see a breakdown of all the Nanny State Social Systems that we've been TOLD would protect and care for our children, since we as parents NEED the help of the Government in raising our kids. But guess what? Each and every State, Local, Social Agency dropped the ball, BIG Time! The D.C. School District failed to keep track of students enrolled in its schools and how many siblings they had in other schools in the District, and at home. Why didn't a Truancy officer show up when former students didn't register for school this Fall? Where was some concern from the Teachers? The Principals?

The Child Protective Agency had a complaint and they are in FULL ON CYA mode. I would take about 10% of their public statements at face value. They have to account for WHY this one [supposed, I'm guessing there were actually more] complaint was not investigated, thoroughly. No group of people is more competent at covering its collective ass than a government agency. Lately, it seems like Child Protection Agencies, all over the country [I'm not just pickin' on D.C., it's just their turn, THIS time] are being accused of incompetency, and apathetic discharge of their duties. So here's another Agency that dropped the ball.

Now don't you imagine, since this Waste of Skin and Plasma became a Mom at 16 and had 4 dependants, that she was drawing SOME kind of assistance from the .gov? I'm thinking Medicaid for the school age children, food stamps and Public Housing Assistance of some sort at the least. Perhaps even the generous [yeah,right] allotment of Aid to Families with Dependent Children. The amounts vary from State to State, but it's not enough to live in luxury the way some people complain. So didn't SOME eligibility worker notice when she NEVER brought in a child when it was recertification time? Having been an eligibility worker for a State Agency, I can tell you that odds are, at least one of these forms of assistance was up for renewal during the last 6 months. In the case of AFDC & Medicaid the eligibility workers I've known like to actually lay eyes on the people receiving the benefits. In the public housing realm, they have some sort of inspection every 3 to 6 months. HUD and/or the City and/or the Fire Department...SOMEBODY is always trooping through inspectin' somethin'! So WHERE in blazes were these people in D.C.?

I'm just askin'..if the gov't. is goin' to try and turn this country into a Nanny State and turn us into Sheeple who let the government think for us, because it's to dangerous for us to think for ourselves and make decisions for ourselves... then WHY, oh somebody tell me WHY didn't SOMEBODY from the government protect these precious children? God knows there were so many missed opportunities where if just one government worker had cared just a little bit more about doing their job CORRECTLY, instead of putting in their eight and going home to watch more reality TeeVee, maybe, just MAYBE these children might be alive.

Or if the family or friends or neighbors of all 8 of these children had done SOMETHING to help the parents and/or the children then there might not be 8 dead children. It is this failure, of individuals and groups, that leaves me in a state of despair. But then...

I am an individual. You are an individual. I'd like to think that we are not the kind of individuals that look the other way. That, when we see a parent being abusive or neglectful, that we try to do something to make it STOP. I like to think that, if one of the children in my neighborhood is in trouble, I would help them out. But frankly, short of seeing one wandering down the street and calling the Police [which I actually had to DO one time] or see a parent out in the yard mistreating a child, I can't visualize a situation where I could intervene given our current level of interaction with our neighbors. It's not that I'm the unfriendly sort..it's just that my Spanish language skills aren't that good and they don't speak enough English to interact. So, we smile and nod.

But Fam. That's another story. I would move Heaven and Earth to help one of my Brothers or Nieces. My Children and Grands...anything. The Dearly Beloved - anything but dying, and that is only excluded because he wouldn't allow that to happen.

So I guess what I'm tryin' to get around to is that I am not quite as despairing as I was when I started this post. Yeah, there are still slime, barbarians, and savages loose in our Society. But, we, as individuals CAN make a difference. We, you and I, can protect ourselves and our loved ones and we can lend a hand when we see that it needs to be done. Maybe I'm being naive, but I think we really can make the world a better place.