The story of Shaniya Davis is tragic. It is disgusting. It is scary. It is many things.
It is NOT Sanford. Everyone I know is just as shocked as me that this happened here. I am heartbroken for many reasons about this story, not the least of which is the fact that this town I love, my adopted home, has entered the national spotlight for this, of all things. Those of you watching on CNN, on Nancy Grace, on other national news stations don’t see what I see.
I see a place that has so many wonderful people that they were turning away volunteers for the search. The people of this town wanted to bring that little girl home to her family, one way or another. There were many, like me, who couldn’t handle the actual search and offered other help. They even had to turn away those types of volunteers.
I was at the park with a friend the afternoon she was found. I needed to get out of this house and the park seemed like a good place to be. There, the other moms were just as horrified as we were by the news. Sickened, shocked, and scared.
Now that I’m a few days removed from this, I see that I have no reason to be scared. This was the result of fantastically horrible parenting. Someone who was obviously in over their head, who didn’t realize the profound gift that motherhood is. While I’m certainly not Mother of the Year, I think it’s safe to say that there is no way I would ever sell my child into prostitution to support my drug habit. (Obviously this is all alleged at this point, but it sounds like they have a good reason to charge her with that.) Lee County isn’t some hotbed of child prostitution or human trafficking. This was a result of the actions of a few bad people. I will certainly continue to be vigilant but I refuse to live in fear.
And I have hope. Because in the midst of this terrible story, I’m reminded that for every one bad person there are many, many more good people. People who are just as horrified by this as I am. People who feel this overwhelming need to DO something to fix this even though they don’t know what that something is. People who are heartbroken for and cried real, painful tears about this little girl they’d never met.
I feel like I need to reassure myself and everyone else that Sanford is a beautiful town. Not necessarily because of the scenery (though there are some beautiful places here!), but because of the people. Please don’t let this one story color your opinion of us. We are not the Shaniya Davis story. We are so much more.
Excellent points. I’ve not met a single person in Sanford who didn’t pray for Shaniya’s safe return and then grieve when that option disappeared. All of our hearts were and are with her, and hopefully those who see Sanford through this story’s lens can see that.
I didn’t know it happened in your town. I guess I didn’t pay attention when they name the town. Yes, such a sad, sad story.
People who I’ve barely spoken to in the last several years have been burning up my email inbox with “Don’t you live in Sanford?” emails and it seems like they all have some terrible picture of this place. It’s hurtful to me…we’ve chosen to stay here (though with the job loss and everything, we certainly had no real reason to) because we love the town. It’s my home, and like anything else I’ve chosen for my own it can hurt to hear people speak badly of it.
It’s like they said on the Rant yesterday…Fayetteville has got it’s stink all over us right now. I lived in F’ville for a couple of years and it IS a pit of despair. It makes me sad that people (who don’t know differently) are viewing us that way.