Those were the days before Adam Walsh, Somer Thompson, Charish Perriwinkle, and sadly, many, many, more. Who are these children? These are children who were abducted and killed by sex offenders. There are mean, evil, broken people in the world who do unthinkingly awful, horrible things. Sex offenders are definitely broken people. These broken people do things that render innocent, helpless people heartbroken.
Adam Walsh was watching some older boys play video games in Sears while his Mom shopped for a lamp. He was out of her sight for seven minutes. Somer Thompson was walking the mile home from school with her twin brother and older sister as she did everyday. Somer got in an argument with an older girl and ran the other direction. Her sister thought she would catch up with the group. She didn't. Charish Perriwinkle was with her Mother, brother, and sister in Wal-Mart last Friday night when they befriended a creepy but nice man who offered to buy Charish a cheeseburger at the McDonalds inside the store. Charish disappeared with the man before her Mother could even give her permission to walk away.
My heartbreaks for the families of these children. My heartbreaks for the Mothers. I can honestly say that to lose Kate is my greatest nightmare.
When in a store I NEVER take my eyes off of Kate, I wait to watch her enter in the doors of her school every morning when I drop her off, and I NEVER let her go outside our house in our neighborhood by herself. There are many other precautions I take to keep her safe but none of this is a guarantee.
I don't blame the victims or their families in these cases. I do think part of the issue is that we feel safe. We trust the people in our communities. Another part of the issue or problem is lack of education. We know our neighbors and love our neighborhood, we love our school, we know many of the people who work in the stores in our area. BUT for us there's a registered sex offender who lives three miles from our house.
And here's my rant: We have a new neighbor. She's eight years old. She moved in to the house two doors down on April 1. Kate loves to play with her. When school was in session our neighbor, who we will call Jane, came out to play when her Mom or Dad got home around 5:30pm. She and Kate could play for about an hour until we had to go in to have dinner. Now that it's summer and most children aren't in school Jane has no bedtime or curfew. She rang my doorbell on Friday night at 8:20pm looking for Kate. Kate goes to bed most nights at 8:00pm. "We have a schedule," I told the girl. She said, "Why? It's summer."
I'm not really bothered that she rang my doorbell at 8:20pm, I'm bothered because she and a five year old boy from the neighborhood were running the streets without ANY adult supervision at 8:20pm! I don't know her parents and I've only seen them a handful of times but the next time I see them I'll fill their ears full.
Friday night while a little girl was losing her life in Jacksonville, FL these children were wandering our neighborhood alone. I'm heartbroken that Charish won't have a chance to start third grade, to graduate from high school, or go to college. AND I'm heartbroken that some parents don't see the danger that lurks in our quaint, safe neighborhoods.
I'm also heartbroken that Kate will probably never know the freedom that my bro and I knew as children. Running through pastures without a care in the world and certainly without fear. I can still remember the smell of freedom.
These are certainly different times with different sorts of people. Broken people as well as heartbroken....
