The Voice of a Child

By now, you’ve probably seen, heard or read about Robert Turner. If you haven’t, then you might want to get to Googling or just start here. Whether or not you do your own research, I fully intend to vent my indignation and disgust. Buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. Robert Turner is a just-turned-six-year-old boy from Detroit. His mother is dead. Why? You explain it to me. Robert was at home with his mom when she collapsed in her room. Evidently, Sherrill Turner had an enlarged heart. Robert, doing what children are actively taught, picked up the phone and called 9-1-1. Kids are in the news often these days, touted as heroes for having the understanding and wherewithal to do exactly what is required in an emergency. They get awards. They get medals. They get recognition and affirmation of the value of their actions. What did Robert Turner get? Harassed and ignored. When little Robert called 9-1-1, he was accused of “playing on the phone.” Was help dispatched for his mom? No. He was threatened that the police would come to his house and HE would get in trouble. Alone in the house with his mother for three hours after his original call, Robert tried to call 9-1-1 again. AGAIN he got no help and was AGAIN chastised for fooling around. Did help arrive this time? Nope. Oh but the police did show up much later with apparently the sole purpose of giving the boy some form of “talking to” for abusing the 9-1-1 system. I took the opportunity to listen to the 9-1-1 calls when I saw them offered online. I had read that Robert could not clearly be understood when he called. Bullshit! I heard the boy clearly tell these operators MORE THAN ONCE that his mother had “passed out” in her room. One of the operators told him to put his mother on the phone. What part of “passed out” does this woman not understand?! Whether his mother was passed out in a drunken stupor, regurgitating every one of her internal organs, or passed out due to her health condition, Robert was asking for help. What the HELL is wrong with us? As a society, we place so much pressure on our children to BE more, DO more, WANT more, ACHIEVE more. We’ve barely squeezed the watermelon through the keyhole to bring them wailing into this world and we’re looking at Ivy League pre-schools. We’re worried they are “falling behind” if they aren’t reading “Moby Dick” or the full works of Shakespeare before they start kindergarten. We feel that we’ll fail them if they aren’t adept at ballet, soccer, baseball, football, cheerleading, choir or playing fourteen frigging instruments before they’re out of grade school. Cripes people! OUR parents were just happy we made it through the damn school day without eating paste or scuffing our shoes!!! Along with everything else, we don’t just teach them to “stop, drop and roll” anymore or to “just say no to drugs” – now they have to know how to respond to the emergency situations of others, how to call 9-1-1, how to do CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. ADULTS TEACH THEM THESE THINGS. So, how about this novel idea: when a child does EXACTLY what they have been taught and reaches out for help, LISTEN TO THEM AND TRUST IN THEM. If, by chance, they are playing a heartless joke, give them the appropriate reprimand AFTER it has been determined that all is well. DON’T ASSUME. Hasn’t everyone and their dog heard the expression by now about what it means to ASSUME? You know… “it makes an ASS out of U and ME”???? It makes an ASS out of YOU because, if you are in the position to help a child and you DON’T, you are the most worthless piece of crap to walk this Earth. It makes an ASS out of ME because I’m the one who has taught my children ‘til I’m blue in the face that, if you or someone you know is in trouble, find a police officer, find a trusted adult or CALL 9-1-1. Why do we have (and pay for) the damn service if it’s only available to those who are deemed either old enough or god forbid, WISE enough to use it?! Young Robert Turner was a whole helluva lot wiser than those to whom he reached out for help. At one point during his second call, Robert let out an exasperated “UGHHHHH!!!!!” I swear it brought tears to my eyes to know that he had been in the house for hours… alone… with his deceased mother… and the operators could not put aside their bitchy attitudes long enough to reason that the boy might… JUST MIGHT… be TELLING THE TRUTH. We will hear a lot of talk now about the cost implications when emergency services are dispatched to a false alarm. We can’t send police, fire or EMT teams willy-nilly, over hell and high water, at the whims of silly people with nothing better to do. That costs MONEY. What my mind tells me right now is that it would sure be nice if those two 9-1-1 operators ponied up a damn truckload of money for Robert Turner. Money that will buy him the birthday presents his mom will never be able to give him. Money that will put him through school and nurture his future – if he is smart enough at “almost six” to take the steps he took to save his mother’s life, I’d say Robert’s already getting an education. Money that will make every Christmas as happy as it could have been with his mom there to spoil him, even just a little. At least two individuals have placed the value of a dollar above the value of a mother and her child. They will not be forgiven.