It’s All Maya!

Gone are the days when children could walk to and from school by themselves.  Gone are the days when children could play with their friends until dark and then head home.  Gone are the days when kids went out trick-or-treating with their friends and no one had to check their candy before they ate it.

I grew up in a time when kids walked to school alone or with friends.  Yes I know I’m going to sound like my parents when I say we walked for miles to school, even in the midst of winter and several feet of snow was on the ground.  We passed through a wooded area with other kids, but the “big bad wolf” that was lurking there was only in our make believe minds!

In summer we played with our friends down by the river or in the park and we could be gone for hours riding our bikes or lying in the grass and after a long hard day of playing, when the sun began its descent below the horizon, we headed home hungry and tired.  In the winter we slid down the neighbor’s hill with our sleds until it was completely dark outside and our parents were calling us to come in out of the cold, but we kept saying to ourselves, just one more ride!

Halloween was for children and as we got older, 8, 9, 10, 11 we dragged our little brothers and sisters with us and went knocking on neighbors and strangers doors alike.  We munched on candy as our bags got heavier and heavier.  No one thought that someone could possibly put a razor in an apple or drugs in a candy bar.  We would stay out until dark and it was the one night where we could go into the local bars.  The barman would give us popcorn balls wrapped in different color cellophane paper and the men on the stools would dig into their pockets and throw change into our bags of loot.

Today parents would shiver from fear to even imagine such scenarios.  Gone are the days of innocence where parents let their children play outside and then expected them to return home.  Gone are the days when parents tucked their children into their bed, kissed them goodnight, turned off the light and expected to find them there in the morning.

Where are these countless children that we hear about everyday; that were here one moment and then gone the next?  The faces change, the names change, the ages are different, yet the sweet innocent smile looking back at us are all the same.

And so again, another beautiful child is missing without a trace and I wonder how is it possible for a child to completely disappear and not leave any evidence of what had happened?  The most recent has been 8 year-old Sandra Cantu from Tracy, California.  She left a friend’s house on Friday March 27 and hasn’t been seen since.

The month before on February 10, five year-old Haleigh Cummings was taken from her bed in the middle of the night while her father’s then 17 year-old girl-friend, now wife, was sleeping in the same room along with Haleigh’s brother.  Haleigh too has vanished without a trace.

On January 10, six year-old Adji Desir was playing with friends and then afterwards was still playing in front of his grandmother’s house and then he was gone.  No one saw anything.  Little Adji has the mental capacity of a 2 year-old and has a very limited vocabulary.  After several extensive searches for the boy, there are no leads.

Almost two years ago Maddie McCann vanished into thin air while sleeping with her twin siblings in a resort apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal while their parents were dining at a nearby restaurant with friends while on holiday.  Some believe she was abducted, while others think that her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, may have accidentally killed her from an overdose of sleeping medication.

Which leads us to the Caylee Anthony case where some believe that the child’s death may have been caused accidentally by a fatal dose of chloroform that the mother, Casey Anthony, administered because Casey wanted to go out and party.  I say, how many parents who want to knock out their kid puts masking tape over the child’s mouth?  The difference with the Caylee Anthony case to all the others is the body was found and there’s overwhelming evidence as to what happened and who did it.

Contrary to belief, most children missing each year are found.  Most sexual abuse to a child is with someone that the family and the child knows.  Worst nightmare for a parent is that their child is abducted by a complete stranger and for good reason; the child is usually taken, tortured, raped and then killed within the first three hours after their abduction.

Maya Muses:  How many more children must disappear before people begin to say enough is enough?!  Not only should there be stricter laws putting pedophiles away for good and throwing away the key; the judges that let these people go with just a slap on the hand (so they can go and commit another assault on another child) these judges need to be disbarred for life!!!

Photo Credits:  Google Images and Flickr