Seattle KING5 news…
…ran this story earlier this year and I was horrified. I talked it up with some of my family and friends at the time, but now I realize that I need to get the word out to a larger audience. Part of this is because of what I have come to realize is my larger purpose and mission, especially in regard to this site, my songs, my nursing home ministry, my life with a child living with autism, having endured many years of infertility and failed attempts at achieving pregnancy and as an adoptive parent:
I must heed Christ’s call as so eloquently echoed by the late, Great Pope John Paul II to proclaim the Gospel of Life.
We must all respect life.
This is the most fundamental of rights and it cuts across all religions, races, and regions. It cannot be a political issue. It is basic. Everyone has an inalienable right to life from the moment of conception until natural death. There are no qualifiers. This right applies to everyone regardless of age, young or old, intelligence, sex, or physical or mental health.
In the case of Bill Trask, what happened? How could so many people watch him suffer and not intervene? What can we do to change the system? What can we do to change ourselves – our own attitudes towards people who appear “different”?
The Developmentally Disabled Behind Bars
Bill Trask walked into that jail healthy and left so damaged he can’t even feed himself. His story opens a window into the treatment of the developmentally disabled behind bars in Washington State.
The KING5 story was focused on Washington state, but this issue applies everywhere.
You can see the entire investigation story here, on KING 5.
The The Developmentally Disabled Behind Bars by Chris Hartzog, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States License.
