In Texas, you're never too young for your first rodeo. I'm from the land of Perry Homes, Tom DeLay, Imperial Sugar, childhood obesity, and abstinence-only "education". Here in the heartland, we think, everyone should pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Even children.
My cousin's baby is a year old and is very close to walking. She can balance herself to stand up almost all the way but one of her feet are usually pointing the wrong way, so she stumbles sometimes. She gave me a kiss for the first time, Saturday night. We had been playing for about an hour and were sitting (she was leaning) by the couch. All of the sudden, she looked at my face, leaned forward and pressed her lips (and whole face) on my face. It was a sweetness that nothing can imitate for me.
Right now, at least for a few more weeks, because of the bad decisions and the irresponsibility of generations before her that baby who I love might be floating around the city with drug dealers and the women who are chemical slaves to them. Women who have long been dead inside and can only screw or be screwed. One of those women is her mother and my cousin. Because of the aforementioned generations, we are forced to turn against her, one of our own who was abused and ignored. We have to choose the baby over her to fight for the child's chance at being able to love one day, at happiness.
The genetic urge in me to rise up and fight is something so powerful and accessible. For moments, days, and hours with us, she is totally safe. One day soon, she'll be settled with the right part of our family but what about the woman who brought her forth? As she has always had to exist, my cousin is powerless and alone.
The worst part is that all of this is happening in Texas. Home of knocking kids off CHIPS rolls, No Child Left Behind, and of course the stellar Wackenhut privatized 'juvenile justice centers'. You can see that Texas really knows how to keep up with the poverty-ridden youth of its state. The lack of resources, the all-too-common degradation of social services courtesy of two decades enmeshed in fiscal compassionate conservatism, are all just cracks you'll pass on the road paved with good intentions. If for any reason you can keep your head above the bureaucracy, it better have been what you really wanted, partner, because you're drained mentally and financially from trying to just make things okay.
Who would really try to lash out at liberals at this point? Does anyone dare claim that anything glancing left (politically) has been in control of Texas for a very long time? A moral deficit continues to eat the South alive, and it lies in the heart of conservative politics and economics.
If you have to be around a child today, tomorrow, or any other day: smile at that child, engage them, let them tell you a joke. Let that child experience your warmth, even if it's just for a moment in line at the grocery store. You have no idea how many of their days and nights are already spent in the shade.