My Definition of “Mistake” Differs
Posted By Randy on June 26, 2014
To begin, I offer this summary from an article posted Wednesday by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
A Lunenburg man has been fined $5,000 and is prohibited from owning animals for 10 years after his Portuguese water dog died when he left it inside his car in Wolfville during a hot day last summer …
… Remai said he got the dog, named Jackie, when he was a puppy and went so far as to look for a vet who would avoid using drugs and vaccinations. He said he was stressed the day his dog died — for a number of reasons — and said sometimes bad things happen.
Remai told the court he’s not good at multitasking and was distracted that day. ~ Lunenburg man fined $5K after dog dies in hot car
And this, posted today by CNN:
What sounded like the most tragic of accidents — a dad absentmindedly leaving his toddler in the car on a scorching Georgia day — is now being treated by police as a horrific crime …
… Later that afternoon, around 4:16, Harris left his workplace near Vinings, outside Atlanta. Within minutes, he pulled into a shopping center asking for assistance with the toddler, who had been in the car for about seven hours at that point, the warrant says …
… The second-degree warrant says Harris “did with criminal negligence causes (sic) a child under the age of 18 cruel or excessive physical or mental pain.” …
… “There’s a difference between negligence and gross negligence,” Cobb Police spokesman Mike Bowman said at a press conference. “The thing about the negligence is that it could happen to anybody. The gross negligence shows that there’s some other circumstances revolving around this.”
When a reporter directly asked if authorities think it’s malice or negligence, Bowman said, “I honestly don’t have an answer for that question.” …
… When Harris was charged with felony murder and child cruelty, there was vigorous debate over whether the heartbroken father should be punished. Surely, he had suffered enough, many thought.
Erin Krans of Marietta started a change.org petition asking Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds to drop the charges. It garnered hundreds of signatures.
“This could happen to anyone. Anyone. Charging a grieving father is abusive,” wrote Susannah Waldron of Universal City, Texas.
Another signatory, Molly Greenwood of Centerville, Ohio, wrote, “I think the accident alone is enough punishment for the man. I cannot imagine.” ~ Tragic accident or murder in hot-car toddler death?
“I was stressed that day and sometimes bad things happen.”
“I’m not good at multitasking.”
“This could happen to anyone.”
The world is awash with excuses, uttered daily in concert with unbelievably serious efforts to make them acceptable and reasonable, no matter how horrific the outcome. The rebranding of negligence as mistake is a growth industry, so we daily encounter people whose primary daily motivation is the avoidance of responsibility. Unwillingness to commit to anything and living every moment with one foot over the safety line. Belief that it is the duty of someone else to protect you from your own stupidity. To take a stand against the downward spiral of it all invites attack as being too judgmental and laying false claim to perfection, whereas what the naysayers are really doing is paving the way to the day they themselves do something equally idiotic. Sliding that foot over the safety line.
My version of the world doesn’t work like that. In my version, there are other living beings that have every right and entitlement to the rock solid knowledge that, as long as I am breathing, they can depend on me.
Today’s utterance is going to be short and ugly, all thanks to these two people I started off with – laying claim to the assertion that mentally, they were somewhere other than where they physically were, and as a result, someone innocent died. It was all a terrible misunderstanding … you understand, don’t you?
Bullshit. I don’t, I never will, and I won’t try. What I will do is hope you die in a fire. A large and slow burning one.
It takes a single generation to lose a skill or knowledge base. Likewise, an undesirable set of behaviours can also be reversed in the same interval, provided we have the will to pursue it. Right now, the lost skill I’m talking about is the ability to be where you are, in the moment, with the others who are physically there with you. To be mindful of those who are depending on you.
I’ll close with a story I first heard a few months ago, and that jumped to mind as soon as I read the story of the toddler’s death in Georgia. Listen, think, and be where you are, when you are; today and all the days you have left.
The audio was one of the most creative, chilling and nightmarish things I have ever heard. I find it a horrifying commentary that lately, on some major stores, I have seen warning signs or decals on their entrance doors reminding people to not leave their child in the car. This is a good thing, by its intention, but the fact that it is necessary??? What is wrong with us? Did you ever hear of this happening, ever, in the 50s or 60s or any time until the last few years??? And regardless of what penalties society may hand out, I think tht there could be no Hell to compare with the knowledge that we had caused the death of a child or a pet. Honestly, I don't think I could live with that knowledge but would probably end my life. In fact, i once backed over a stray cat that had walked behind my car as I backed out of the driveway, and I was so stricken that I had heart palpitations and an extreme anxiety attack and had to take my heart meds after I buried the little creature. I cannot even imagine what it would have been like if I had left a living thing in my car and had such a result. My animal family trusts me to look out for them protect them and nurture them, and that I do. But stories like these cause a bone chilling feeling and a hollow feeling in the pit of the stomach.
"What is wrong with us? Did you ever hear of this happening, ever, in the 50s or 60s or any time until the last few years???" You indeed ask a valid question. In fact, THE valid question. This isn't about things being reported now that always used to happen but got swept under the carpet. It's a new phenomenon, and symptomatic of a greater ill. Other variants – not being present in a restaurant with friends or family in favour of texting and facebooking with people who aren't there. Doing the same while driving. Photographing food instead of enjoying everything your Dog would enjoy about it. No ability to be alone in Nature without music or vapid information being streamed constantly into your ears. It all leads to loss of connection with what's going on, and your necessary role in it.