Daily Happenings from poetsareangels

I just read the CBS News story “Litany of horrors allegedly inflicted on boy found nearly dying of starvation“. As a listened to the reporter, Mary Robb Jackson interviewing neighbors and telling the story, I just couldn’t stop crying. There were times that I was a single mother with three children, then again with six children.  There was never a time when a single one of my children were left to starve. I would go without if I had to for the sake of my children. Fortunately, that’s not really something I had to deal with. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to make sure that ALL of my children were fed and their needs tended to.  I almost feel as though poor Antonio’s mother, Mary Rader, blindly picked one of her children’s names out of a hat and that poor child was going to endure the most horrific conditions of their life most likely because the mother felt she couldn’t afford to take care of all of them with the limited resources she had. Poor Antonio knew no better than to catch insects and eat them because he had nothing else to eat. He couldn’t play as other children did because he had no energy. I can’t even imagine how he carried the weight of his riddled body from place to place, with infected feet and an extreme lack of strength. I don’t know how he wasn’t asphyxiated by the smell of his own defecation and decay, no clean air to breathe. Only by the grace of god there was even 25 lbs left of him to be rescued.

In my lifetime, I have served as a jury member 3 of the 4 times I was called to duty. Each time the case was related to drunk driving. Despite my feelings on the subject, I was able to serve as madam foreman objectively each time. If I were called upon to serve on this case, there is absolutely no way that I would have any objectivity. As a mother of six there is no one that would be permitted to inflict any harm towards my own children without paying a price. Mary Rader must be punished to the fullest extent of the law as should Antonio’s maternal grandmother Deanna Beighley and her husband Dennis Beighley for being fully aware of what was occurring and doing absolutely nothing to help young Antonio. How can you tend to the needs of three other children, who seemingly in good health, and basically attempt to obliterate young Antonio’s life. What could such a young child have done that was so wrong causing his mother to commit such a heinous and unforgiving act? In cases such as this, while everyone has the right to due process, this particular case should be exempt.

Mary Rader, Deanna Beighley and Dennis Beighley’s trials should be pushed aside and they should be sentenced to endure the same conditions that poor Antonio did for at least the same period, if not longer.

I hope that Antonio and his siblings can be placed somewhere that no one will have heard about their story, they can change their names and erase the past they had no power to control. They deserve a fresh start with people who will put them first and make all the normal parental sacrifices you would expect a parent to make.

Every time I see a boarded up window with children’s toys in the yard or on the porch, I will wonder if there is a child victim being neglected by an insanely, unconscionable, sorry excuse of a parent.

I implore our justice system to truly seek justice for Antonio and his siblings.

Opinion of

Felina Silver Robinson