They Have To Be Monsters

Thanks for chasing down those image attributions @kotonas, I have added them to the post.

A related story. My wife and I were on a walk with our son about a year after he was born (2009), and we were startled by a very low flying helicopter and other emergency vehicles. We didn’t know it at the time, but someone else’s son was already dying after tragically being left in a car seat, literally blocks from our house.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Baby-s-car-death-tragic-lesson-for-all-parents-3229489.php

Imagine what that feels like, when you’re the one who forgets.
Imagine what your marriage becomes after that happens.
Imagine what your life becomes after that happens.

Even if Everett Carey’s death Monday was an accident, however, the father who left him in the car could face criminal charges. Parents involved in similar tragedies in the Bay Area have been prosecuted on charges including involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.

Prosecution, because They Have To Be Monsters. (Mercifully, this is rarely followed up on in most jurisdictions unless the circumstances are exceptional.)

What punishment could you possibly deliver to this parent that would be even a fraction of the punishment they’re already going through? After this, your life is your punishment, of a kind I can’t even begin to fathom. And it doesn’t end until you do.

@Uboni_Paladin I see you. Understand that part of the reason I want to read and feel these things is to appreciate just how damn good most of us have it. We are so fortunate. So very, very fortunate that we simply forget. We forget all the time. We forget to be there for our fellow humans, all of us on this tiny rock hurtling through space, 4.3 light years from the next star.

So thank you for the reminder, and thank you for sharing your story. We’ll all be star stuff one day, all of us together with your beautiful, beloved son.