A Man Yelling Into an Empty Sky

03 Apr A Man Yelling Into an Empty Sky

My husband reads the newspaper daily.  I confess, I don’t.  I don’t listen to the news.  I don’t watch it.  I try not to even look at the headlines.  Ignorance is not bliss, but it helps me sleep at night.  Except the other night, when my husband — who was reading the paper — told me that they found the body of another child  — who had been missing in Virginia– in a septic tank (story here).

The story is heart-wrenchingly familiar. Apparently the little guy had been playing in the yard around his house and disappeared.  The police, his family, the entire community was searching for him.  Days later, they found his little body in a septic tank.

I don’t know the details of little Noah Thomas’s story. As a mother of three small children, I don’t want to. But, I do want to say again: EVERYONE CHECK YOUR SEPTIC TANK COVERS! Living in rural Montana (really, what part of the Big Sky state is not rural?) we all need to be aware of where our septic accesses are, how they are covered and ensure that, if they are made of a plastic/fiberglass riser and covered with a lightweight fiberglass lid, WE HAVE INSTALLED A KID-CATCHER. These designs look good: here, here, or here.

I can’t remember if I said in my last post about this, but we discovered in our case years ago that in our little community of Evergreen alone they replace dozens of fiberglass septic lids every year and hundreds of bolts.

Hundreds.  Of.  Bolts.

In closing argument years ago, Lee said that he felt like he was a man yelling into an empty sky.  Me too.  WAKE UP!  Get out there and install a kid catcher.  Protect the little feet running, jumping and playing in our back yards.