Angels and Demons

No, this has nothing to do with the book and subsequent movie currently being filmed and in the headlines for Rome's hostilities against it.

Saturday night in Stanislaus County, CA, a man was found beating a toddler along the side of the road. Despite several people stopping and trying to help the child, it took the police showing up and shooting to kill for them to get to the child, who has been estimated to be approximately a year to two years old. The police were flown in via helicopter and made an emergency landing in order to try and save the boy. The child was not breathing by this time, and was pronounced dead at the hospital. Investigators are trying to figure out the relationship between the two, citing that it was most likely parental since no children around that age were reported missing recently. The child was beaten so severely that the only way they'll be able to identify him is through DNA analysis. While tragic and terribly saddening, this is not a surprising result following the descriptions of the man's actions that night:

"What we got from witnesses is he was punching, slapping, kicking, stomping, shaking," [county sheriff's deputy Royjindar] Singh said. "They tried to intervene and get involved, but their efforts really didn't have an effect. The suspect was engaged in what he was doing. He just pushed them off and went back to it."

Dan Robinson, a volunteer fire chief who tried to help, described the man as saying that demons were in the boy.

It's disturbing to me the number of these types of beatings and/or deaths popping up lately. I just don't understand how someone could think their child/ren were possessed or evil. I've heard several people talk about the miracle of birth, and how amazing it is to see something that is half them and half their lover. Obviously these people do not know how to handle the stress and responsibility of being a parent (and are probably a few fries short of a happy meal). I don't have any children. I do plan on it in the future. But whenever I see children being treated poorly, it greatly upsets me. I see each child as a miracle, as a one in a million chance at intelligent life on this planet. Maybe s/he'll grow up to be the next president, diplomat, the doctor to discover the cure for AIDS or cancer or even JRA. To hurt someone who could potentially be so important for millions and perhaps billions of people in the future seems like a pretty stupid thing to me. Discipline is necessary, but not so physically.