Good For Business

     It was Monday, October 31^st and some of the children were arriving at the day care in Halloween costumes. Little Clair Clark, who was only three years old, had on a fairy princess outfit, complete with wings!

     I said, “Oh Clair! You are so beautiful!”

     And Clair said, “Yes, I am a vision.”

     Clair's best friend, Gilly Green, who was also three, did not have on a Halloween costume. But she did have a large lump on the side of her face.

     Her teacher, Ms Bonnie, said, “Gilly! What happened?
     And Gilly said, “My Daddy kicked me.”

     Ms Bonnie then did what she was required by law to do. She went to the person in charge of the day care and repeated what Gilly had said.

     Ms Nancy, who was the top administrator at the day care did not do what she was required by law to do. Instead, Ms Nancy said, “Oh, we don't know for sure that Gilly's father kicked her. And Gilly has two brothers who are enrolled in this day care along with her. If we took this matter to the police, Mr. Green would know it was us, and he would get mad and remove the children from the day care. And that would be bad for business and so sad if it turns out that what Gilly said is just not true. And it would be so much better for the children to stay here where we can observe, and later, if we are convinced that Mr. Green is abusing the children, we can let the police know then.”

     On Tuesday, November the first, Ms Bonnie, who was Gilly's teacher, called in sick to the day care. She was not sick. Ms Bonnie went to the police station and told them what Gilly had said to her.

     On Wednesday, November the second, a social worker from the police station arrived at the day care and interviewed Gilly and her two brothers individually. It took a while, but eventually the three children each talked about abuse going on in their home. The social worker told us that the kids would tell their parents about the interviews.

That meant that soon Mr. Green would know that we knew.

     On Thursday, November the third, a social worker from the police station went to the house of Mr. and Mrs. Green to have a talk.

     Now there is something I have to share with you about Mr. and Mrs. Green. They were from another country. They were from a country where there was a war going on for all the years of their childhood. The Greens were recent emigrants to the United States hoping to make a better life for them and their children.

     At the day care, we knew that Mr. and Mrs. Green could speak English. But that Thursday night when the social worker was knocking on their door, Mr. and Mrs. Green refused to answer and shouted through the closed door that they could not speak English!

     The social worker then followed protocol which was to leave the premises and return later with a social worker who could speak the same language as the Greens.

      Finding this social worker took more than a day. It took more than a week, and in fact, it took longer than a month!

     We at the day care got very nervous! Every day we worried about what Gilly and her brothers were going home to each night – were they getting hurt? Every day we worried about Mr. Green – if he was capable of hurting his own children, what might he do if he were given a real reason to be angry? And we had given him a very good reason to be mad – we had talked to the police! Would he take his anger out even worse on his kids? Would he come to the day care and make a scene? Would he come to the day care and make threats? Would he come with a weapon? Could he follow any of us home and hurt our families?

     And these fears rose from something that we knew about Mr. Green – what about all the unknown? What about what we don't know about everyone around us? What are they capable of?

     It was enough to make us realize the obvious – there are no safe places.

     Never for one moment did we regret having spoken to the police about Gilly. But none of us knew, before we did it, the scope of what that meant.

     Doing the right thing, in this instance, meant putting ourselves, and all who we hold dear to us, at risk.

    On Monday, December 4^th, a social worker who could speak the same language as Mr. and Mrs. Green knocked on their door, and they had a talk. The social worker explained to Mr. and Mrs. Green that in this country there are laws, and if certain of those laws are broken, one's children could be taken away!

     On Tuesday, December 5^th, Mr. Green withdrew Gilly and her two brothers from the day care, complaining about things being none of our business.

     You would think that there is a finite number of day care centers in the Dallas, Texas metropolitan area, but try as we did, we were unable to find out where Mr. Green had moved his kids.

     In all the years since then, we have had to have faith in the system and trust that after all that, all went well for Gilly and her brothers and her mother and her father, otherwise we would be hostage to the fear of what we knew about Mr. Green and hostage to the terror of all that is unknown.

     On December 24^th, Christmas Eve, the ghost of Marley came to Scrooge. The ghost was covered in chains, and he was moaning that he wished he could have done more when he was alive. Ebeneezer, in his effort to make his friend feel better said, “You were always a good man at business, Jacob,” whereupon the ghost moaned ever more loudly,

     “Mankind was my business!”

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