By Melissa Anderson
Last Thursday a two year old child died. She had black hair and dark eyes and a little round face. Her name was Wang Yue, but she was called YueYue. Wang Yue toddled out into the middle of a small street in China. She was hit by a passing van, ran over twice and was left in the middle of the road dying for a whole nine minutes while no fewer than eighteen people passed her little body lying in the road, turned their heads and did absolutely nothing. In the end, it was a tiny old woman collecting bits of trash who pulled the child to safety, hoisting the little girl up from the street and finding help. Wang Yue was rushed to the hospital and survived for a week before her body failed.
Lets go back to those people. Eighteen. Think about that. As this tiny, curious tot lay slowing dying in the street, eighteen people passed by, within a few feet of the child, turned their heads and passed by. Eighteen people were placed in the situation to intervene and eighteen people did not. As a result of their lack of action, Yue was run over not by one vehicle, but two and felt the most terrible pain of her life completely alone. Eighteen people did not rush to the child’s aid. Eighteen passersby didn’t get in the way because it was none of their business. Wang Yue was someone else’s child.
Before we point a finger of condemnation at those eighteen passersby, let us honestly ask ourselves: Are we not all sometimes passersby?
Everyday thousands of our children are killed through the tragedy of abortion. These are real human beings. Real lives, each very much as individually important as Wang Yue’s. All too often we find ourselves afraid to speak out against abortion, despite our deeply seeded beliefs. We keep our noses, as they say, out of the business of others. All too often we shy away from the discussion. Silence becomes our safe haven while the children of the world lie in the streets, unable to save themselves.
I encourage my readers to be bold in your beliefs. Be firm. Don’t turn a blind eye convinced you’re too small to institute change. The world needs more tiny, obscure trash collectors. They are so often the most noble among us.
Melissa Anderson is a lawyer in San Antonio, Texas. She is the mother of seven crazily adorable children and an author of children’s books. In her spare time, Melissa volunteers extensively with Court Appointed Special Advocates educating the community on issues related to child abuse and neglect.