Food for Thought

I am suffering from a book hangover this week; I can't stop thinking about the story, and I get emotionally worked up every time I do.  I read "The Killing Jar" by Gloria Nixon-John and Robert "Skip" Noelker about a 15 year old boy, Ted Lynch, who killed his 7 year old neighbor during a psychotic break-down in 1978 Kentucky and was sentenced to death at the age of 16.  He was diagnosed with schizophrenia about 1 month after the killing, but he NEVER received treatment.  The book focuses mainly on the trials and background of the boy who was abused and starved most of his life.  This book is based on a true story; Ted Lynch did not contribute to this book; his psychologist contributed, and it has lots of court transcripts, interviews, newspaper articles, etc.

Why do I get so upset?  So many of Ted's family, friends, neighbors, etc testified that they knew the boy was being starved and how his mother abused him (verbally and emotionally), but instead of helping Ted, they just stopped all contact with the family.  How pathetic is that?  Instead of helping the poor boy by reporting the mother's actions to authorities, they just walked away.  How can you not help when you babysit the kids and the mother leaves instructions that each child will only receive one slice of bread with one tablespoon of peanut butter PER DAY? Plus, the mother leaves only enough food in the house for that instruction.  How can you not think that it is not abuse or starvation?  How can you live with yourself?

I guess that I have hope and faith in human beings, but with this book, I'm a disappointed and just a bit mad at the world.  Then I get to thinking about all the bad stuff happening in the world right this very minute, how many people are just walking away "because it's easier", and I get so angry at mankind.  Why must we hurt others?  I don't understand cruelty or revenge.  My revenge has always been to never give that person another thought, to not waste another minute second on them.

So this week my food for thought has several aspects: mainly, if you see or seriously suspect abuse, please report it!  Don't turn a blind eye!  The other is just to be nice to one another.  I know that I have a problem with this sometimes, but I am making a conscious effort to be kinder to everyone.

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