In this business, as in journalism, it helps to have a thick skin. It comes in handy when the semi-computer literate Neanderthals with agendas and attitudes show up in comments sections not to offer insight or debate but to b***h, bully and bait. It also helps when you read through the list of daily calamities. I developed a tough hide covering CSA cases and crime as a reporter. But every once in a while, a story comes along that, for one reason or another, leaves me in a cold rage.
Sydney Anne Barrett is a young mother with a military husband. You can learn more about her on her website. Sydney suffers from Functional Neurological Disorder, which progressed from bouts of intense pain to her being confined to a wheelchair. The Life Institute reports that not long after her diagnosis, her husband was deployed overseas. Sydney completed college and learned to function in her wheelchair. The couple gave birth to a baby girl. She created an Instagram account, as she put it:
…as a way to process what was happening to me and encourage others who found themselves struggling with disability or chronic pain. I never expected it to reach the audience and community that it has – the friends I have found there have blessed me just as much as I hope I bless them! I want others to know that it IS possible to find confidence, hope, and courage after disability.
However, when Sydney began to share the stories about being a mom, the creatures of the internet decided to summon the most crude, vile, and despicable sentiments possible and, of course, post them.
Some of the comments are insensitive. Others are nothing less than nefarious. I have left the spelling, grammar, and punctuation of these troglodytes intact so that the reader may gain further insight into the mindset of such people:
Not everyone has to have the right to have a child
Why would somebody in a wheelchair ‘make’ a disabled baby?
Did the baby come out w a wheelchair too?
Just why. Just imagine no disabled only abled.
If she really cared she would have adopted a child in need. But nope she has to prove to everyone she’s not a broken human nope she has prove she can be a mom to !!! … Disability Pregnancy PEAK narcissism.
Breed week stock get weak stock facts are facts
How dare you allow disabled to pass it onto a kid. you are sickeningly naive.
It’s just common sense. it is stupid honestly a form of abuse to bear children with chronic disability when you knew fully well they would also inherit it.
Poor baby
But why would you reproduce, knowing your condition?
This is wrong on so many level…
Worst childhood. That poor baby is in for a hellish life.
Honestly, disabled people shouldn’t be having kids.
Why make more disabled people
Humans are just selfish
I don't personally know the animals who made these comments, although I think it is safe to say that they are definitely not pro-life. It never fails to amaze me that in a society in which so many people are so quick to shout "Nazi," these people are the first to embrace the core tenets of the Third Reich, not just antisemitism but Hitler's love of eugenics. The souls of these people are on full display here.
With extraordinary aplomb, wisdom, tact, and tolerance, Sydney addressed these hyenas and carrion birds on her Instagram account:
I speak now to the people of faith. No preacher, pastor, priest, theologian, armchair, or otherwise can adequately explain why people are born with or develop disabilities. No one can truly understand or explain tragedy or cruelty. There are platitudes and pithy sayings that are too often employed to make the inquiring person shut up and go away and stop harshing everyone else's vibe.
I can attest to the fact that you can drive yourself beyond distraction trying to find the answer. But as someone who spends a great deal of time mulling things like this over, I have arrived at a partial conclusion. Which, to be honest, is all you are going to get, even if you are a VIP Member.
While I do not know why God permits tragedies and will not engage in sophistry to appease anyone, I do think the following is true. In the case of people with disabilities, financial hardship, or any other difficulty, God will judge us on what we do. If we cannot or will not summon compassion, courage, and love, if we cannot or will not dig deep within ourselves to offer what we have, no matter how meager it may seem, we will have failed a crucial test.
One may skate through this world fueled by rage, wealth, and ego. One may drop horrific comments on the web with impunity and then return to their parent's basement for another bong hit, some more MMORPG gameplay, or to prepare for the next campus tantrum with new signs, fueled by fresh Hot Pocket from mom and secure that they have scored a moral victory. But God will judge each of us by how we have treated the aged, infirm, and helpless.
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