PittGirl usually avoids controversial subject matter for two reasons:
1. I don’t need the hassle of the arguments.
2. I cry when people are mean to me.
However, sometimes I get angry.
Case in point, you of course remember the horror story of the seven kids that were left alone one night while their mothers went out and then five of them died in a fire sparked when two of the kids played with matches.
At the funeral for the kids this weekend, this was said:
Community activist Jibril Abdul-Hafeez … said, “It’s a shame on the whole of Pittsburgh.”
“Who’s responsible? This city has been responsible for [people living in poverty] for years and years. How can you arrest and prosecute these women for neglect, and you won’t prosecute the past leaders of this city for neglect?”
The Rev. Curtis addressed that point in the closing of his eulogy.
“What does it matter? Five angels have died! Who cares what happened and how it happened and when it happened? It’s our children who have died.”
Oh, my God. Are you kidding me?
1. Why is this becoming an issue of poor versus rich? Saying these women are not at fault because they were the neglected poor is an enormous insult to every other poor person in the world who makes the responsible personal choice to NEVER leave their children home alone in the wee hours of the morning. These women weren’t off to their jobs. They were at the neighborhood bar. This is an issue of stupid versus not stupid.
2. Who’s responsible? I am not responsible. You are not responsible. The rich are not responsible. The City of Pittsburgh is not responsible. Responsibility rests squarely with the two young mothers who kissed their kids goodnight for the last time and walked out of the house, closing the door behind them.
3. This is NOT a shame on the whole of Pittsburgh. This story has been plastered all over the country and there is not a soul in America that read the story and said anything other than, “Shame on those moms.”
4. I feel for these women and if they come before a judge and that judge says to them, “I know you have been suffering which is punishment in and of itself, therefore you are sentenced to three years probation and 300 hours of community service,” I will be completely cool with that. If they are not prosecuted at all, that is an injustice not only to the children that died, but to the two surviving eight-year-olds who now have the weight of the world on their shoulders because they acted like eight-year- olds and there was no adult around to tell them to stop playing with the matches.
5. I care what happened. I care how it happened. And I don’t care for it ever to happen again.
Rant. Over.
