If you speak to the old folks you will find that villages and families looked a little different some 50 years ago. One family would have a little girl who had Downs syndrome, and a few homes down would be a boy with spina bifida. Auntie Moses remembers “Old Lloyd” who used to help his parents in their Bridgetown store until the mid-1960s. Old Lloyd was about 50 years old and “not quite right”, but he was a gentle soul who would sweep the floor and never speak.
In the year of Our Lord 2008, there aren’t many children left in the “first world” who have Downs syndrome.
What did you think happened to them? Did you think that downs syndrome had been cured? It is something that we don’t like to think about, but yesterday’s news made me think of Downs syndrome children anyway.
Yes, I am horrified – but not really surprised – to learn that terrorists in Iraq strapped bombs to two retarded women and then sent them into a crowded market where they detonated them by remote control.
Cruel. Horrible. Evil.
… but not the only cruel, horrible or evil thing that happened in the world yesterday.
Further Reading
ABC News: Female Bombers Strike Markets In Baghdad
Society For The Prevention Of Infanticide
Blog: Not Dead YetÂ
Barbados Free Press 