6:44 a.m. - Monday, Feb. 18, 2002
Ms Leslie sees the babies
I like to leave the TV going most of the time. The underlying noise helps attenuate those irritating sudden noises that make me jump so bad. Lately even frying bacon makes me jump when it pops. I need to get over that.
But anyway, there on TV yesterday, I saw the funniest political ad. It made the national news, so maybe you saw it too. It was some guy running for Attorney General of some state. I don�t know where. It�s not important. Just listen, OK? So, most of the ad just shows this guy in a good suit holding these screaming babies. He�s obviously no good with babies.. or at least he is good at acting that way. He holds them funny. They cry and scream for their mothers. One after the other, holding sometimes one and sometimes two babies at a time, the shots roll on. Not a single baby is happy or silent. Then the announcer comes up and says �Joe Doaks: A great lawyer���� Not a great politician�
And then the last baby vomits on candidate Doaks, or whatever his name is.
Oh, it�s a great ad, as political ads go. I got a laugh out of it. But then, as my laughing waned, I thought of those babies. You see, none of the babies were acting. Each one was terrified. How scary must it have been for them? I wondered how they got them to cry so hard just for the shoot. Did they have the mothers leave the room, making each baby feel abandoned with this big strange person? Make a loud noise to startle the baby? I don�t know, but whatever they did worked marvelously. The babies cried piteously.
And then I wondered� how funny was this to the babies? Who there was concerned with their feelings? What was it that we found humorous in seeing these little people terrorized and screaming? How many re-takes of the ad did it take to get a perfect product? How long were the babies made to endure this emotional trauma?
And who was there to speak for them? Do we really value children so little that we can watch as a nation while they are terrorized for our enjoyment? While I thought I was watching a political ad, was I really witnessing child abuse?�� and laughing?
I can do this.. and I think you should try too: Imagine yourself being held against your will in the arms of a stranger who is many times larger and stronger than you. Imagine that you can�t speak or understand any language. Imagine that your only guardian, upon whom you rely for your life, disappears and leaves you struggling in the stranger�s embrace. And imagine other strangers all around you, ignoring your terror; talking, laughing and going about their business of capturing your ordeal on video tape.
How does this feel? Do you imagine you will be a more trusting person when this is over? Will you feel less afraid of abandonment and helplessness? Will you feel that you are even worth being seen, heard and cared about?
What kind of world is this?
Some days I am glad I am an alien here.
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