It's time to open our eyes.

     There is a local story here in the Boston area that really needs some attention outside this area. Normally I try to keep my stories to what we all see throughout the country but this happens everywhere in the country, not just Boston.

     Carlos Edward, age 33, got into an argument with his girlfriend. As it goes with most arguments it was probably over something foolish. According the Channel 5 news, the argument was over Carlos not getting money from his girlfriend. Of course this is pretty small news until you get to what Carlos’ reaction was when he did not get any money. Carlos proceeded to take a 7 week old baby, Carmelo Sears and throw him to the ground. Yes, I just said throw him to the ground. Yep, that is where the story should now get national attention.

     I understand we as adults can be put under great deals of stress. Some of that stress is comes from outside sources but most of the time it is just what we put onto ourselves. If the money thing was because of something illegal he needed it for that is stress caused by Carlos himself. Any way you cut this, I don’t think the infant Carmelo needed to pay the penalty for the girlfriend not giving any money. Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens all the time. Where we are in a recession though, it seems to multiply at an astonishing rate. Go ahead an check for yourself. I won’t bore you with numbers and statistics but violent crimes, suicides, and murder have all increased over the past three years. I can accept these crimes based on the poverty levels falling onto families and individuals, but violence on children is another thing all together. Other than being born, what did this infant do? He didn’t ask to be brought into this world but yet Carmelo is now in a hospital, clinging for his young life.

     Carlos has been arrested and is being held on bail. This will obviously be a case where the state will push for prison time and make the proper call on how much time. There is really no excuse you are going to give a judge in Massachusetts that is going to get you out of abusing a child. The time Carlos will most likely see is nothing compared to the amount of prison justice he will receive. As much as society likes to shun the prison system, there are times that the inside justice is a lot more swift than the regular legal system.

     I feel it is time we start giving ourselves a huge reality check as a society. When we all talked to our neighbors, spent times with our families, worked to live and not lived to work, things like this happened less often. I’m not saying you should run out and hug the next person you see. What I am saying is if we all get a little bit more involved with our surroundings; people would be less inclined to throw their seven week old infant on the ground.