Nixzmary Brown 2nd Anniversary

Friday, January 11, 2008 marked the second anniversary of Nixzmary Brown's death. Two years have gone by yet it feels like just last week.

I've been working on an article that included about a dozen or so links to online news outlets that have written about the horror she lived. The article was quickly turning into an ocean of links so I removed all but one link. Another reason why I opted to omit them was that they all repeated pretty much the same things. The amount of articles out there was overwhelming. Via email I ended up with several hundred alerts referencing Nixzmary's case. As a matter of fact, a short while ago I queried her name and in one search engine alone 47,400 results appeared about 10 minutes later that number jumped to 47,500.

Her untimely death allegedly at the hands of the people who were suppose to love and protect her has obviously sparked many discussions. For legal reasons I had to throw the allegedly in there yet the fact is she did not do this to herself.

Children are supposed to become adults not statistics. Is the power of freedom such that some people feel entitled to take out those they bring into this world?

How much did her stepfather and mother think she could take? What did they think was going to happen to her after everything she had been through? Did they hope she would bounce back? Did they think that she would snap into a perfect child and all would be fine? How stupid do you have to be to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results?

At the root of such sad and painful incidents such as this is the fact the parents did not do what was best for the child. The question is, why? Answer: Indifference and cowardliness.

When did it become okay to torture a child? Who is responsible when children die or are tortured allegedly at the hands of their guardians or parents? Tell me why can't we blame the parents, their adult family members, even their close friends? Those who knew first hand the constant nightmare Nixzmary was living and did absolutely nothing to help her in my opinion are to blame. She needed one determined, fiercely-loving person and she would still be alive.

If it turns out to be true that her mom has deep seeded emotional issues as alleged by her husband, then why on earth wasn't he or someone from her family making sure she received treatment? Why is it that the last thing a person thinks of is facing a jury/going to jail when they commit such atrocities? Truth be told, they probably don't think about anything at that moment however, that is no excuse. In the end, who also pays the price for those apathetic, thoughtless acts?

Indifference is a slow poison that humanity must seriously address every chance it gets. If we don't address it then there will always be another Nixzmary.

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More on Nixzmary Brown including Nixzmary's Law, ACS, Pretrial etc:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixzmary_Brown