'It was either there or the street'

[Indigo Blue]

Thursday, October 23, 2008

'It was either there or the street'

Inferno devastates recently evicted family who found refuge in ramshackle house
3 children, woman die in fire that destroys five homes in Highland Park

Francis X. Donnelly, Catherine Jun and Tanveer Ali / The Detroit News

HIGHLAND PARK -- Instead of a radiator, there was a space heater. Instead of a stove, a hot plate. Instead of a bathroom, a bucket.

This was the two-story house on Waverly into which Katie Dale and her three children moved two weeks ago. It was the best she could do after being evicted from another home for failing to pay property taxes.

Her downward spiral turned lethal Wednesday when a fire caused by the space heater killed her children and their great aunt. Dale and three other residents survived the fire.

"She had to have a roof over her babies' head," said a cousin, Shamelle Jones. "It was either there or the street."

- snip -

Dale, who is 5½ months pregnant, clambered out of a second-story window and yelled for her children to follow her. They didn't, and she jumped from the roof.

She was treated for cuts and bruises at Henry Ford Hospital, where a dozen family and friends tried to console her.

"God took three lives and gave her one," said her sister, Lawana Dale. "That's a hurting nobody can imagine."


Continued @ http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081023/METRO/810230387


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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 25

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

[Mojambo]

1. There's a reason why I refuse to say I'm proud of my country. n/t

[az chela]

2. GOD DAMN YOU BUSH AND PAULSON

[tblue]

3. I feel like I've just been punched in the gut.

This is literally a cryin' shame! :cry:

Oh, those poor babies and their auntie. Oh, that poor mommy. OMG OMG OMG.................

[tomreedtoon]

4. This reminds me of a creepy short story from my youth.

I think it was in junior high. I picked up a book of short stories to read in study hall. There was a story of a kid whose father was an absolute drunk. The kid had to leave home for his own safety.

He managed to get to the Golden Gate Bridge (yes, in San Francisco) where a workman had left his keys in a door to the structure. The kid found a secure place inside the bridge with a small window and an electric outlet. He bought a hotplate to make food, provide light at night and keep him warm, and slept on his bundle of clothes.

The kid was kind of a hero, and stopped suicides from jumping - then disappearing into the bridge. A reporter, a decent sort, pretended to be a jumper and followed the kid, and eventually won the kid's trust and got him a home.

Of course, that happy ending would have to be fiction, wouldn't it?

But then, the kid in the story must have been very appealing as a concept to kids who were abused, in a time when nobody (especially not teachers) ever imagined kids could be abused. The dream of a life on your own, without hatred and abuse.

No wonder American teachers don't want to teach our kids how to read. They don't want them getting hopeful ideas about living an independent life from those damned books.