it's senseless for children to die

In Hudson Oaks, Texas, a young mother hung herself and three of her children, ages 2, 3, and 5. A fourth child, an 8-month old baby, was also found dangling in a closet with the rest of her family, but managed to survive. It is believed that the mother may have been depressed.

I understand depression. I can empathize with a depressed mother who is struggling to make it through each day. I sympathize with those that cannot find their way out of the darkness and have lost all hope and will to live. While I know what this mother did was horribly wrong, I can understand her wish to die.

Although I understand, I mourn the babies that have died as a result of depression. This kind of situation has happened before... Andrea Yates drowned her five children in 2001; Deanna Laney beat her two young sons to death with stones in 2003; also in 2003, Lisa Ann Diaz drowned her daughters; in 2004, Dena Schlosser severed her 10-month-old daughter's arms with a kitchen knife; in 1998, Melissa Drexler gave birth to a baby at her High School prom and promptly killed the newborn before returning to the dance. Likewise, there are children that have been removed from a home that was dangerous for one reason or another, only to be shuffled from foster home to foster home and later killed by a stranger that feigned love. And let us not forget the children who have died at the hands of other children.

These are just a few of the children that have died needlessly, senselessly, and prematurely. I often look at their faces and wonder how they might look today, had they been given the opportunity to grow up; I wonder how they might have impacted and changed the world had they been given the opportunity to live; I think about how horrific their final moments on this Earth might have been; I wonder how they might have felt as the person who was supposed to love, cherish, and protect them instead watched them die; I wonder if these babies asked, "Why?"

I am filled with rage that they died too soon; I am sickened that they were robbed of their lives, that the world was robbed of their magic and promise; my heart aches for them. Look at these babies... tell them you're sorry no one protected them... tell them that they are loved... and do not forget.