Friday, February 11, 2005

Letter to the editor

I had a meltdown at work today. Here's the story around the baby that was found in my city the other day.

I don't want to get into too much detail here, but suffice to say that there was cause for officials to be in contact with the place that I work today regarding this case. One of my coworkers came into my office, frustrated, looking for the telephone number of the funeral directors' association because apparently a group of citizens have decided they would like to provide this baby with a formal burial.

I hadn't seen the story about the memorial or the comments left and made by the couple who found the baby ... probably had been subconsciously avoiding the whole thing.

My coworker vented a bit about the whole situation and then returned to her office, leaving me there with another colleague. I opened my mouth to continue on with our discussion that had been interrupted, but instead just began to weep. And could not, no matter how hard I tried, get my shit together.

I feel so helpless. HB and I talked a bit about it tonight, although that was hard because his kids are here and they don't know about our loss. They were young at the time, and we hadn't even told them we were pregnant yet, so it seems kind of inappropriate to tell them about the baby just yet. We will when they get older and can better understand.

I am strongly considering writing a letter to the editor, although I'm not sure what I would say. What I want to say is something along the lines of stop being so frigging judgmental and leave this poor woman alone!

Any suggestions?

2 comments:

Donna said...

Sandy, I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions, personally I would be scared that they would post my letter in the paper and that would bring up even more issues. You do what you feel you need to do. I am often amazed at how cold and callous the news media can be, and how they take sides and then don't apologize later when its obvious they were in error. I am truly sorry for all the grief and sadness that this story has brought up for you.

Sue said...

Perhaps you can write the letter and decide later whether or not you want to send it. I think a good approach would be similar to Soper's...not judging, but offering an alternative perspective. We really don't know what that mother's motivation was, but we shouldn't be too quick to form c conclusions (I rushed to judgment pretty quickly myself.).