I become angered because I can't bring the child back.

I have known far, far too many cases of this kind: as a public librarian, I'm all too often on the receiving end of such knowledge -- after the fact, and all too often after the deeds.

-- A "mother" and her boyfriend decided to party all New Year's Eve and Day -- a long weekend that year, with NYE on a Thursday. So that they could be unemcumbered, they locked the three-year-old in an unheated, unused, garage. The temperature fell to -7 degrees F., and stayed there....

-- A boyfriend left in charge of the infant, who wouldn't be quiet and help the poor man's hangover. To quiet the child he first poured gin into it and then slammed it, over and over, against the wall....

I can't go on.

Every state in which I've worked has a law that requires that any case of suspected child abuse be reported. This has been done by libraries; I know of no case where it was followed up (and yes, I've had friends in the appropriate agency who would have told me). All too often I've heard instead of budget cuts, or of staff reductions.

"The business of government is business" is wrong. The business of government is government -- as the Preamble to the US Constitution states, "We the People...to promote the general welfare...security the blessings of liberty for ourselves *and our posterity*...."

Abused or dead children have no blessings. They need love. Those who govern by bean counting, those who govern by the CYA theories, do not supply love or anything except selfishness. And society has too much of that today.