Where's the Compassion for Families Involved in Horrific Tragedies?

Two horrific tragedies happened within just weeks of each other that involved young children. First, the incident at the Cincinnati Zoo, where a young boy fell into a gorilla exhibit, and just this week a boy was snatched by an alligator and dragged into the lagoon at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort.

In both cases, the reaction from the public in many instances has been crass and unforgiving. The parents of both of these children were nailed to the cross before all the facts were even out. Where is the compassion for these parents? My faith in humanity and human decency just fell a few more notches.

When you have children, anything can happen in an instant. In the case of the boy who fell into the gorilla enclosure, that could have been any one of us. Children can be quick and all parents know this. A question I didn’t see brought up enough was how was anyone, let alone a child, was able to get into the animal’s enclosure.

It’s sad that an animal had to lose its life over this incident, but we have to still remember: it’s an animal and a human’s life is worth more than an animal’s every day of the week. If it were my child, I wouldn’t have hesitated for a moment to make the same decision the zoo did.

The body of the child who got dragged into the lagoon in Florida has been found. I can’t even imagine what those parents are going through. To witness your baby being taken into the water in the jaws of an alligator must have been horrifying. It sends chills down my spine and I am sure this has brought unimaginable pain to that family. The comments on social media are already turning ugly. Many are blaming the parents for allowing their child to be near the water in the first place and saying that it’s not the wild animal’s fault.

Everyone is so quick to judge instead of showing sympathy and compassion for our fellow man’s misfortunes. Have we become so desensitized by tragedies in the media (beheadings, bombings, shootings, etc.) that things like this don’t even faze us anymore? And yes, that was a rhetorical question. My thoughts and prayers goes out to both families.