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When Rights Collide
We live in a society where many of us have come to believe that we have a right to know quite a lot about a great many things. Unfortunately, this seems to have gone a bit over the line where it applies to the rights of children to be kept safe from emotional harm. I am referring, of course, to the recent case of the two boys who were abducted in Missouri. One of the boys was held by his captor for four years and it is this boy whose welfare concerns me the most. Not that the younger boy who was held for days rather than years doesn't concern me, but Shawn, the older boy, has been hit by the media spotlight much more vividly.
Traumatic events in our lives have, by the very nature of the emotion associated with them and the flashbacks, a way of reinforcing themselves. Anyone who has experienced anything like PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) knows that only too well. So, I know that both boys must be carefully and cautiously helped to get their lives back together. It is the constant insistence, on the part of some media, that the public wants to know all the lurid details of the captivity, that causes me great concern.
The public may want to know but the public does not have a right to know just as the children have a right to not provide details and to keep this private. Asking "the questions that are on everyone's mind" does not make this right or any less abusive. These children have been subjected to something no one should experience, neither adult nor child. Framing inappropriate, invasive questioning with the phrase that "the public wants to know" does nothing to absolve the questioner from anything here.
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Technorati Tags: PTSD, Shawn Hornbeck, child abuse, privacy rights
Traumatic events in our lives have, by the very nature of the emotion associated with them and the flashbacks, a way of reinforcing themselves. Anyone who has experienced anything like PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) knows that only too well. So, I know that both boys must be carefully and cautiously helped to get their lives back together. It is the constant insistence, on the part of some media, that the public wants to know all the lurid details of the captivity, that causes me great concern.
The public may want to know but the public does not have a right to know just as the children have a right to not provide details and to keep this private. Asking "the questions that are on everyone's mind" does not make this right or any less abusive. These children have been subjected to something no one should experience, neither adult nor child. Framing inappropriate, invasive questioning with the phrase that "the public wants to know" does nothing to absolve the questioner from anything here.
Related Topics:
Technorati Tags: PTSD, Shawn Hornbeck, child abuse, privacy rights
