Show some compassion?

A year ago a small boy went missing from a remote property in the north of this state. He has not been found.

Yesterday his parents appeared in a pre-recorded video appeal. It was part of the ongoing police investigation. There was also the announcement of a million dollar reward for anyone who was able to lead the police to find an answer to what has happened to the child.

Social media do your bit? Apparently not everyone feels sympathy for the parents. This is so even after the police have made it very, very clear they are not considered to be anything but victims in an appalling tragedy. 

The mother is "not crying" and that is apparently a capital offence in the twisted minds of some people. That she might be weeping at all hours of the day and night off screen does not seem to occur to them. Not everyone openly displays emotions, especially to strangers. It has been clear from the start that this family is a very private one. They live in a very isolated manner on a remote property. It would be a very hard life even if everything was going well. It must be almost unbearably difficult now. 

There are others who claim the transgender grandparent must be responsible. The police looked to them simply because that person was, we are told, present on the property and apparently inside the house at the time of the disappearance. They would not be doing their job if they ignored that. What else they know or were told is not something the rest of us are privy to and speculation is not helpful.

And the theory an eagle may have taken the child? It is unlikely in the extreme. He was four years old. He may not be very big but he was a great deal bigger than a baby. The idea he might have been "snatched" that way is so unlikely the police will almost certainly have rejected it. It is one of those wild theories beloved of conspiracy theorists perhaps but not helpful.

There are any number of other cases of children disappearing and never being found again. I do not think I can even begin to comprehend how difficult it would be to be a family living with this sort of situation. Their lives would be so far from normal any decent individual should only feel compassion.

Some years ago a large reward was offered for information about another event. I remember being at a conference. People were discussing the situation and saying how good it would be to get the reward. I looked at someone I knew and wondered how insensitive people could be. Her child had been murdered some years before. It had taken all her courage to leave her husband for a few short days to come to the conference. I did the only thing I could think of I moved over to her as she stood there saying nothing and said, "It's stuffy in here. Do you feel like getting a bit of fresh air?"

The fresh air was good. The silence was even better.