LOS MARGINADOS: CONTEMPT ▼ Baby left in nativity scene’s manger

martes, 1 de diciembre de 2015

CONTEMPT ▼ Baby left in nativity scene’s manger

Baby left in nativity scene’s manger

UESDAY, 1 DECEMBER 2015

Baby left in nativity scene’s manger

BY TAMARA EL-RAHI

Last Tuesday in New York, a church custodian set up the nativity scene inside Holy Child Jesus Church in Queens. He went to lunch and returned to the sounds of a baby crying, only to discover a newborn, with umbilical cord still attached, lying in the manger.

Surveillance footage revealed a young woman entering the church with a baby and leaving without one. And under NY safe haven law, which permits a parent to leave a child in a safe place (such as a hospital or church) with hope of their being taken care of, she will not be charged with child abandonment. And as it turns out, there are parents in the parish who have already asked to adopt the baby.

This story has a few aspects to it. On one level, it is so heartbreakingly sad that a young woman feels desperate, helpless or unsupported enough to give up her child in the first place – a child that she must have bonded with over nine months of pregnancy; and that she laboured through childbirth for. But on another level, how beautiful to leave the baby in the care of the Holy Family – really, is there anywhere safer?

And then there are the parish parents who are keen to adopt – for all we know this is the answer to their unwavering prayers.

- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/baby-left-in-nativity-scenes-manger/17270#sthash.KGawPZKa.dpuf

I was examining the Twitter feed of the National Rifle Association after a man with a rifle shot dead three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. It didn’t mention this particular incident, but there was an item which caught my eye.

Instead the NRA tweeted about a man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a concealed carry permit who shot a man wielding a crowbar and acting strangely at a Burger King. It was only a shoulder wound so the man sped off in his car to a hospital.

This kind of story mystifies people outside the United States. A talking head on Fox News even suggested that the deaths in Colorado would not have occurred if people in the clinic were carrying guns. Guns for hunting, sure. But carrying a pistol is just asking for trouble. What if the looney in Tulsa had been shot dead? It would have been cruel and unusual punishment for being a bit crazy.

“We have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period,” said President Obama. “Enough is enough.” Agreed. But will anything change? No. Read Carolyn Moynihan's excellent comment here.