December 21, 2006 - Issue 211

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As a writer, there are sometimes when you have to just drop everything and come home and “get it out” before you forget it or you lose your passion. This is one of those times.

I am 29, and contrary to popular belief that all Black women have children, I however do not. It’s not that I am incapable of getting pregnant, because I can. I just made the conscientious decision to not bring another life into the world when I can barely provide for my own life. I call it being a responsible human being and knowing your limits.

Well some people just don’t get that they should not and do not need to be parents.

I was driving east on Rodeo from La Brea just about to pass Dorsey High School when I thought my eyes were playing a trick on me. What I thought was a dwarf trying to jaywalk across the street with a bike was actually a toddler. A child!!!

Unaccompanied by an adult, a small Black boy was in the middle of the street trying his best to cross to the other side.

But it gets worse.

After my heart started beating again, I quickly pulled towards the center divider and took off my seat belt prepared to jump out of the car to grab the kid when a Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services van, traveling west on Rodeo, stopped as well. The driver of the van jumped out and grabbed the boy and took him to the sidewalk where, who I am guessing was his sister, had finally realized her brother was missing and was waiting. She herself couldn’t have been older than twelve years old.

So I’m thinking that the driver of the van, since he obviously works for DCFS, was going to pull over and make an emergency call about the situation. But it didn’t quite happen that way. Because as I made a left and looked into my rear view mirror, I saw him drive away.

As I headed back to my house, I couldn’t help but think that had I not been paying attention or had I been driving too fast, I could have hit that boy. Me!

I was even more disturbed that the driver of the DCFS van didn’t do something about the situation.

While I am not an advocate of taking people’s children away from them, clearly that boy’s parents were guilty of neglect. And had it not been for the quick thinking of the drivers passing by, he might very well be dead today.

I guess all of this has been to say that not everyone is fit to be a parent and I hope that the Department of Children and Family Services did in fact get a call about this incident.

It’s our responsibility as a community to criticize those that do wrong by us, and at the same time, we must be willing to criticize those in our own community who do wrong by us.

That little boy probably doesn’t realize how close he came to dying that day and even worse, his parents probably don’t know either.

BC Columnist Jasmyne Cannick is a social commentator and activist who was chosen as one of ESSENCE Magazine's 25 Women Shaping the World. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and writes a popular daily blog at jasmynecannick.com and myspace.com/jasmynecannick. She resides in Los Angeles. Click here to contact Ms. Cannick.

 

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