About a month, or maybe more, ago I got me a personalized Google account. It didn’t change much about my life. I know I now have access to g-mail and a whole bunch of fantastic other things that I can wait to find out about. One thing that I have taken advantage of is that I have a personalized Google home page in my browser window. This has also not changed much in my life. Except that I now occassionally read a news item or two that catches my eye.

This article on duct tape caught my eye yesterday. It’s a fairly shocking story about a woman who has been charged with child abuse. Apparently she left her two small children at home alone while she went to work. In order to keep them safe, she duct taped them together and perhaps to some large piece of furniture (?). The article says that she was serving in the Navy at the time. There isn’t much information in the article.

I don’t know much, if anything, about the woman in the article.  But her story got me thinking.  I wonder what pushed her to the point of thinking that leaving children duct-taped in a room was a feasible alternative?  Surely she was under some sort of pressure.  That was not rational.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past month, you’re aware that we’re in the midst of a hotly contested mid-term political campaign.  I’ve heard many people say that the “life” (i.e. abortion) issue is a litmus test for them.  I have to wonder tho.  If we force women to have their babies, what is our responsibility for helping to care for the children?  If Ms. Vincent is convicted and spends time in prison, who will care for her children then?  Indeed, who is caring for them now?  Does she continue to have custody of them?  I wonder all of this as I watch an acquaintance who is homeless with two children.  She is working; a supervisor at a department store.  She is the process of getting Section 8 housing approval.  At the moment, if she has to work while her children are not in school she has some built in help with her children.  But I’m wondering what is going to happen when she is living on her own in her house.  How is she going to arrange/afford childcare on weekends when she has to work?  She can’t afford to live on her own and support her children without this job, but she can’t afford to have the job because of the childcare considerations.  She is caught in a terrible catch-22.  She is not alone.  There are millions of women in her situation or a situation with similar circumstances.  We require these women to work, but the only jobs available are those which require them to work when their children need expensive care.  So what are they to do?  What is a pro-life position in this situation?  I have to wonder …