Day 5

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving: Day 5

I am thankful that I was taught at a young age how to show sympathy toward others.
I cannot understand individuals who are always judgmental and never sympathetic in any situation. Before you judge someone, try putting yourself in their position.

You probably heard the story in the news recently about the young boy who was killed at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. Here it is if you have not. ZOO STORY. It's a heartbreaking story and a horrible tragedy. A brief summary for those who do not know the story and do not want to click the link:  This young boy (reports argue over age 2-3) and his mother were at the zoo. She lifted him up and sat him on the top of a fence so that he could better see the animals (African painted dogs). Many suspect that she did this because of his poor eyesight. The boy leaned forward and slipped out of the mother's hands. There was a net of some sort that he bounced off of, and he landed in the dogs enclosure. The dogs pounced and mauled the boy to death. One of the dogs had to be killed during the accident. 

This story is already heartbreaking and horrific enough. The mother had to watch as her son died. I cannot even imagine. She and the boy's father were both receiving treatment due to the grief they were experiencing (similar to PTSD) according to the last update I heard.

So where does sympathy come into play here? I am completely disgusted by the lack of sympathy people are displaying toward this family. Comments on the news stories call the woman criminal, demand that she be charged with the boys death, call for her to be sterilized, spend life in prison or even be executed. People are spewing hate-filled venom at a grieving mother who will likely regret a simple decision for the rest of her life. I am sure that those images play on an endless loop in that poor woman's mind. She honestly may never recover from this. If you cannot see a reason to show her sympathy, what about the boy's father. He was not even at the zoo when the accident occurred. Now people want to take his wife away while he is grieving their child!

I will admit that when I hear stories of abuse or intentional neglect, I often rant about my anger. This woman was not intentionally being neglectful though. She took her child to the zoo for a fun day. She was trying to make it easier for him to see the animals. She made a poor judgement call. She will live with that for the rest of her life. How many of us have made poor judgement calls. I would bet that most, if not all of us have. We have just been lucky enough that we did not have something this tragic come of our poor judgement calls. 

I will admit.... I've done this exact same thing with my child in the past. At this exact same zoo actually. My child was just about the same age at the time. I certainly will never do it again though.  I can not even begin to imagine the pain this family is going through. My thoughts and my prayers go out to them during this horrifically difficult time.