As a writer, there are sometimes when you have
to just drop everything and come home and “get it out”
before you forget it or you lose your passion. This is one of those
times.
I am 29, and contrary to popular belief that all Black women have
children, I however do not. It’s not that I am incapable of
getting pregnant, because I can. I just made the conscientious decision
to not bring another life into the world when I can barely provide
for my own life. I call it being a responsible human being and knowing
your limits.
 Well
some people just don’t get that they should not and do not
need to be parents.
I was driving east on Rodeo from La Brea just about to pass Dorsey
High School when I thought my eyes were playing a trick on me. What
I thought was a dwarf trying to jaywalk across the street with a
bike was actually a toddler. A child!!!
Unaccompanied by an adult, a small Black boy was in the middle of
the street trying his best to cross to the other side.
But it gets worse.
After my heart started beating again, I quickly pulled towards the
center divider and took off my seat belt prepared to jump out of
the car to grab the kid when a Los Angeles County Department of
Children and Family Services van, traveling west on Rodeo, stopped
as well. The driver of the van jumped out and grabbed the boy and
took him to the sidewalk where, who I am guessing was his sister,
had finally realized her brother was missing and was waiting. She
herself couldn’t have been older than twelve years old.
So I’m thinking that the driver of the
van, since he obviously works for DCFS, was going to pull over and
make an emergency call about the situation. But it didn’t
quite happen that way. Because as I made a left and looked into
my rear view mirror, I saw him drive away.
As I headed back to my house, I couldn’t help but think that
had I not been paying attention or had I been driving too fast,
I could have hit that boy. Me!
I was even more disturbed that the driver of the DCFS van didn’t
do something about the situation.
While I am not an advocate of taking people’s children away
from them, clearly that boy’s parents were guilty of neglect.
And had it not been for the quick thinking of the drivers passing
by, he might very well be dead today.
I guess all of this has been to
say that not everyone is fit to be a parent and I hope that the
Department of Children and Family Services did in fact get a call
about this incident.
It’s our responsibility as a community to criticize those
that do wrong by us, and at the same time, we must be willing to
criticize those in our own community who do wrong by us.
That little boy probably doesn’t realize how close he came
to dying that day and even worse, his parents probably don’t
know either.
BC Columnist Jasmyne Cannick is a social commentator
and activist who was chosen as one of ESSENCE Magazine's 25 Women
Shaping the World. She is a member of the National Association of
Black Journalists and writes a popular daily blog at jasmynecannick.com
and myspace.com/jasmynecannick.
She resides in Los Angeles. Click
here to contact Ms. Cannick. |
