Tragedy

Its been a while since I've posted anything. Other responsibilities in my life have kept me from being able to blog as I'd like. However, recent events have brought me back. This post is more a stream of consciousness than anything else.

What can I say. The sheer horror of the Leibby Kletzky murder has shaken the foundations of every aspect of being a Jew, being a New Yorker, and (for many) being a parent. After experiencing the shock of hearing what happened to this poor boy, the first thing that came to my mind was "Oh G-d. What if it had been my child." as I'm sure every other parent did. After the whole mess of thoughts running through everyone's mind, somewhere in there was the question "Who is responsible?". G-d forbid, I don't mean to point fingers, but one can't help think of how this could've been avoided.

What shocked me most of all was seeing kids in Brooklyn walking around by themselves a day after Liebby's remains were found!

From what I see, I don't think the Liebby Kletzky murder will teach these parents anything. At least once a year we hear about a Boro Park child that is either struck or run over by a school bus. Why is this happening? Why are these parents not learning from others' mistakes? Someone told me that "You can't judge people. Some parents have a hard time dealing with so many kids." Well I'm not so sure thats a reasonable excuse.

We can't judge the Kletzky family. What we can do is learn from this tragic event and exercise more caution with our children. No matter what neighborhood you live in. No matter how many frum Jews or moms are in the area, you can never be too careful.