31
The story that we do not mention under any circumstances has won a Pulitzer Prize-Gene Weingarten's second in three years. (So he had a so-so '09, so sue him!)
Should probably add a DO read tag too though.
Yes. It's a sharp cold shock of the reality of who and what we are. Human. Not Gods. Not Demi Gods, but humans.
I totally could be one of those parents, as I forget my own damn name somedays.
I'm tearing up just remembering how much I cried when I read it last year. Hats off to Gene.
It's fucking astonishing. Ever since I read it, every time I'm getting my kid out of his carseat, I just tremble. There but for the grace of &c.
Yes, exactly.
UGH YOU GUYS STOP I AM GOING TO GET UPSET.
Christ… could only make it half way through the first page!
just as well. It only gets worse on every #$)(%ing clickthrough. Like, worse on a log scale.
Thanks for the link though. Luckily I saw what was coming and got the hell out of there.
God this story is so horrifying and yet I'm compelled to read it all over again.
Perhaps this will inspire Weingarten to change his Twitter avatar to something other than a steaming turd.
http://twitter.com/geneweingarten
Is that what crap looks like when you leave it in a car for 9 hours?
(Too soon?)
Rarely do I support/want to high five the Pulitzer committee, but here we are!
I must be incredibly dense. I didn't hate this story as much as I hated the Joshua Bell press release, but I thought it was wretched. Kudos for taking on a difficult subject, but it was the writing that made me want to cry.
OH GOD I remember this story. When I first read it it literally made me cry.
I have a child of my own and … well, there are just no words.
Gene's columns are terrible, but his chats are super.
I can't get this story out of my head and I see my therapist in an hour. This isn't going to go well.
I DO NOT NEED TO READ THIS TODAY.
leaving work now to take daughters out of school and hold them.
Yup, the headline and the picture caption was more than enough for me to agree with you.
I hadn't read this before. The writing is outstanding. And the issue deserves all the attention a Pulitzer may bring.
The passage beginning "When I was 16 in high school" is unbearable in its sadness.
OH GOD WHY DID I READ THIS AGAIN
I can only get through it if I stop every paragraph or so and go watch them blow up Texas Stadium, again.
oh thank god you said this. it really helped!
Am I heartless? I've only read lthe first page but no waterworks. Yes, it's sad, but not affecting me much. Maybe because I don't have kids yet? Or much of any personal connection to small children?
Ok, nevermind! I just read the entire thing and now I'm all messed up!
yeah it took a few pages to really get to me too. but it sure did!
Probably there does not need to be a contest to see who can feel the most/least? It can just be, like, objectively sad.
It is certainly and objectively and hideously sad. And I found it an amazing article. But… doesn't any killing, whether resulting from neglect or intent, feature heavy and heartbreaking mitigating circumstances? Is 'I forgot/was distracted by stress' more of an excuse than 'I am seriously disturbed' or 'i am addicted to a substance that made me irrational'?
My heart utterly breaks for these people. I do not, on a human level, want to punish them or have them be punished more than they will punish themselves. Nonetheless, surely, in cold legal terms, being in charge of something vulnerable MEANS not forgetting it is there…?
I don't so much mean that these people should see harsher punishment, as that the level of compassion in this article vis-a-vis 'perpetrators' should see wider application. Because surely there is always a set of circumstances – unless you believe in outright evil.
(I don't know how you make that into a legal system, however…)
"Let's all have kids" Darwin said.
I can't even imagine the mental fortitude it would take to be able to keep going after you did something like this.