Right now, as I'm typing this, my hands are trembling with anger and sorrow. A while ago I read a story on the news about young Danieal (pronounced "Danielle") Kelly, a 14 year-old disabled girl, who died from neglect. For a couple of hours, that story kept staying in my mind. What with Iraq, the elections, everything, yet this one story stood in my mind. One word, one single word kept coming back...murder
Nyceve always writes about murder by spreadsheet. Well what we have here is murder by neglect. Murder by bureaucracy. Murder by ignorance. Murder by selfishness. This is more than a low down dirty shame, this is something much more worse.
PHILADELPHIA - Four social workers were among nine people charged Thursday in the death of a disabled 14-year-old girl who authorities say wasted away from neglect before dying at 42 pounds.
Danieal Kelly's mother was charged with murder; counts against other defendants range from involuntary manslaughter to perjury. District Attorney Lynne Abraham said any of the nine could have foreseen the horrific fate of Danieal, whose emaciated body was found in her mother's squalid house covered with bone-deep, maggot-infested bedsores in August 2006.
- excerpt from "9 charged in death of disabled Philly teen", Associated Press, 2008.
I don't know how I missed this back in 2006. Only a bitter sweetness has attached on to me the knowledge that these monsters had been charged. I really do hope that District Attorney, Lynn Abraham, throws the book at these bastards. But I hope we accomplish more.
Now I've never met Danieal, nor anyone connected to this case. Nor have I ever encountered someone in a similar horrific situation. As a disabled person all my life, though, I have seen neglect. Through the years I've seen good people helping the physically and mentally challenged. Yet, at the same time, I have seen neglect on several levels.
I have been lucky in the sense that I was sorta people person, and made friends easy. But I have seen that one kid, either with crutches or even deaf, shunned by many. I did my best to make friends with them, because God knows I know what it feels like to be excluded. Beyond this social setting, many times my ears have heard of emotional neglect that these kids face by family members. And, sadly enough, physical neglect that the authorities had to get involved. Luckily, this is not the norm.
And this is one part of the story that also really got to me. The state failed it's job. You could pin the blame, and rightly so, on those individuals hired to investigate the case. But where was the proper oversight? Where were the supervisors?
I also blame the state in the sense that I could tell from my experiences in dealing with Medicaid or even the Chicago Rehabilitation place, that funding is lacking. Cut backs here, cut backs there, it all adds up, and eventually people like Danieal pay the price. We do nothing, I mean nothing, to really provide for those in need. You can tell me all you want about this service or that, but when it comes to proper funding and programs or initiatives to support such a mission, well then everything goes blank!
For a mother to allow a child to whither away like Danieal did, it just boggles the mind. Perhaps the state of mental health for this mother was in dire need of attention? This brings up the whole issue of support for programs on such issues revolving mental health. But lets assume for a moment, that this was pure neglect, that she figured it was easy to watch the "problem dissapear."
Was this because of money? I know, as someone on social security, that that check doesn't really cover squat! In Illinois, the food stamp program in the form of a LINK card, doesn't cover much these days. You can give me all the racist-linked rants about "welfare queens," but I remember going to a Chicago public school and watching poor urban kids get screwed over time and time again by the system. Hell, I've been in a suburban high school and seen the same thing! Working poor, middle class, we and our children are being thrown overboard! Meanwhile, rich bastards like Warren Buffet get special plated cards for various chains like McDonalds to eat for free (If you don't believe me, watch CNBC's The Billionaire Next Door, you'll see)! Don't tell me that the money dolled out is enough.
Poor, disabled, it doesn't matter. God this pisses me off to no end! We go out of our ways to save a sports team from leaving a city, or bailing out a bunch of corrupt bastards from a bad business decisions; fuck let alone illegal wars and the graft that goes along with that! Yet ask, simply ask that social security or disability checks be made up to par to meet inflation? Conservative bastards like Limbaugh, libertarians, and whomever else starts bringing up stuff like midnight basketball or welfare queens, or stupid slogans like "make 'em earn it." Well did you ever stop to think that there's a possibility that they can't?
And why, why did we outsource the function of DHS to private source??? Does everything have to be privatized?!? I am somewhat of a capitalist, but Jesus Christ, this goes to far! You can't add a profit motive to monitoring the welfare of the disabled! Oh, I'm sure there are honest hard working folks in this field. But I'm sorry, this is akin to privatizing the fire department.
You know, I want to bring up planned-parenting, but that would run the risk of me being labeled a racist or some sort of pro-eugenics thug. But that wouldn't be my angle at all. So all I'm just going to say is, perhaps if the mother had proper advice and access to programs, this could have been avoided. I hope you understand what I mean here.
Danieal Kelly's death is a tragedy. If she were white, in a well to do neighborhood, the media (Fox) would be all over this more than they were right now. We lost someone because of cutting corners and improper funding. Everyone, her neighbors who knew the situation, the parents, and these agents need to be charged with murder or accessory to such. How many more disabled kids have to die because some rich asshole needs a tax cut?
Look, forgive me, I'm just so upset about all this. Honest to God, I just want to throw up my hands in disgust at this country sometimes. We could do better, we really could. I just don't want to see another child hurt, that's my thing.