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If you need proof that this country's economic woes are having a severe toll on families all across this country, look no further than South Carolina, where a Mother suffocated her two children and then lied to police and said they drowned when her car skidded in to a river.
Police say 29-year-old Shaquan Duley confessed to suffocating her two children after she had an argument with her mother. Duley allegedly placed her hand over their mouths. She then strapped the children into a car and drove it in to the river to fake the cause of their deaths.
And what would cause a young Mother to commit such a horrible act? Police say Duley was distraught over money troubles and unemployment.
"This was a young lady that was in trouble, in trouble in more ways than she realized," Sheriff Larry Williams told the AP. "She was in trouble and she didn't know where to turn."
Duley is expected to appear in court Wednesday afternoon to enter a plea of not guilty to the charges.
"We want everybody to keep an open mind and to understand that they don't know the whole story," said Duley's attorney Carl B. Grant.
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Dead are 2-year-old Devean C. Duley and 18-month-old Ja'van T. Duley.
Duley also had a five-year-old that will have to be raised by her mother, who is also currently unemployed, according to news reports.
It's incredibly sad that this woman could not find someone to turn to for support and instead resorted to taking the life of her children. There were surely psychological factors involved in Duley's morbid decision. Williams says that Duley claims her mother berated her about her failure as a parent and they argued frequently about her inability to provide financially for her children.
"She was a Mother that was unemployed. She had no way of taking care of her children," Williams told the New York Times.
It's clear that Duley is responsible for the decision to murder her children. And I, as some BV readers already have, question if the father of these children was fulfilling his financial responsibilities to his children. It is literally the least of his responsibilities. I'm sure another contributing parent would have removed some of the pressure Duley felt.
However, it's clear that help with money and jobs should be readily available to every citizen in this country. That's why its so discouraging to hear people like former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay say that unemployment benefits should not be extended because it makes people not want to work.
"You know," Delay said on CNN, "there is an argument to be made that these extensions, the unemployment benefits, keeps people from going and finding jobs. In fact, there are some studies that have been done that show people stay on unemployment compensation and they don't look for a job until two or three weeks before they know the benefits are going to run out."
Republican Senator Jon Kyl is also on the same unemployment benefits equal laziness argument.
[Unemployment] doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work," Kyl said
Others such as Ben Stein and Glenn Beck (surprise, surprise) have chimed in with similar sentiments.
Far from making people lazy, unemployment benefits keep families afloat until they can find work. No one is going to be partying it up with the small amount of money the benefits provide. Plus, it's called unemployment insurance because Americans pay in to the system while they are working just in case they need it at a later date.
In addition, the jobs just are not there. Even adults are lining up for low-wage fast food jobs that used to be filled by teenagers, and for African Americans like Duley, the national unemployment rate is higher than the general unemployment rate.
People need to be trained in jobs that are available. I worry for young people coming out of college with liberal arts degrees and tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt.
No one should feel guilty about accessing the help that is available to them. Maybe if this Mother had more assistance, she would have made a different choice. It's too easy to just say Duley is a terrible person without examining the factors that preceded the unthinkable decision she made to murder her future.
I guess closing the deficit is more important than saving lives.
Comments: (160)
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By: amelia on 8/27/2010 1:09AM
You have to plan your life and try to avoid circumstances that you can not handle. If you have children you must be a grown woman in order to raise them. Try to find a man to marry or that will support you and your children. Find a grown man to stand by your side. You need an education,reliable birth control,control over your emotions,control over your desires and trust in the Lord to make it through tough times.
I pray that the Lord will be with this young sister and her babies.
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By: sarah on 8/27/2010 3:11AM
First and formost I give honor to my Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST who is first in my life. I love people and life is so precious and not ours in the first place to destroy,disfigure and certainly not to end. But I must say where is the compassion not only for the poor mother and the children even the comments of the people who expressed there feelings, i heard a lot of petty comments against each other in times like this as a people we must first pray,then forgive and HELP if i could help her son out in any way the grandmother legal fees for the mother to recieve some legal and psychological help that is needed, where my lawyers at for maybe a probono case where is my church synagoue masque oops my spelling may be a little contact me at wsarah877@aol.com.
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By: Eagletarian on 8/27/2010 10:58AM
What did she do....sit on them??
DISGRACEFUL....A TOTAL LACK OF HUMANITY
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By: Traci on 8/27/2010 3:31PM
@ Mae et all... I'm Christian and have a love and compassion for all, no matter what. I may not understand what happened or agree with her final decision, but my heart bleeds for these people, she will NEVER be able to undo this terrible act, her children are gone and her Mother was not mindful and taunted her daughter... her words helped push her daughter over an edge of no return. I am thankful everyday that I wake up (by power of God) with health & in my right mind. I feel loved through all of my struggles. I wish there was a gospel word I could give to this woman now, not condemnation.
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By: F. MUHAMMAD on 8/27/2010 7:29PM
WHERE , AND WHEN WILL THIS EXCUSE MY BEHAVIOUR, GOING TO END? THIS BIG, FAT UGLY THING, TOOK THE LIFE OF 2 INNOCENT BABIES. SHE SHOULD BE HUNG UP SIDE DOWN, OVER A ANT NEST, HONEY PUT IN ALL HER CREVICES, AND LET THE ANT DO THEIR JOB.APPARENTLY ALL SHE DID WAS EAT.
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By: belle on 8/29/2010 10:31PM
@ Britney & others...To the ignorant people that have commented on how this could have happened...Try not being able to feed your babies thru lack of any financial stabilities...You are truly EMBICILES to make such a comment as is....The economy is NO joke and I blame the IDIOT repubs for not taking a stand in helping these unfortunate people thru no fault...Extend the 99'ers you FOOLS!!!
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By: bellebelindalouisville@yahoo.com on 8/29/2010 11:36PM
@F Muhammed first of all, you need to go back to school to obtain your GED bcse I seriously doubt that you would have a legit high school diploma...Your words are pretty ignorant and secondly, this woman needs to be prayed for and NOT redicule...You are probably one of those MORON repubs bcse you certainly sound like one...So before you start bashing one, I suggest that you look in the mirror bcse you are probably a not so pretty site....IDIOT!!!!
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By: dellareese on 8/30/2010 1:33PM
My heart and prayers go out to thsi young mother and her entire family.
What we must remember is that everyone is wired differently and as such we should be slow to criticize and quick to Pray.
The babies were innocent victims and certainly did not deserve the pain, the mother is obviously in pain and for what ever reason she reacted in way that only caused more hurt and pain.
I hope that she will recieve some sort of treatment in addition to what ever else is decided as her fate.
We live in a time now where it truly takes the Village to Raise and Save our Children lets help more and talk less.
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By: Kent Paul Dolan, LCDR USNOAA Corps, retired on 9/01/2010 5:44AM
Studies done perhaps thirty years ago showed that rats raised in overcrowded conditions kill their own young.
More recent studies show that primates commit infanticide if raising the current offspring in a situation where they are unlikely to thrive looks like a losing gamble for the parent's reproductive success, a gamble that would lessen the chances of later born siblings surviving and thriving, so that infanticide for those primates is an evolved trait leading to more offspring that live to reproduce in their turn.
Humans today gag and retch at what was, as recently as 2500 years ago, considered normal human behavior.
In ancient Rome, a father had the absolute right to kill one of his children with no explanation to the civil authorities at all, until that child reached the age of majority and left the home and therefore left the domain of the father's rule.
Is it possible that on a planet overcrowded with humans, the absolute right of a parent/woman to make decisions about reproduction termination for a child unlikely to thrive should continue (well) beyond a child's birth?
Is it possible that we-collectively have chosen to reject and punish behavior built into us by evolution?
Just a thought.
xanthian.
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By: Lady'D on 9/15/2010 12:15PM
First of all thou shall not kill. I amm sick and tired of my black people making excuses, about uemployeement, no momey, DO YOUR'LL REMEMBER SLAVERY. OUR ANCESTOR CAME INTO THIS CONTRY BY FORCE. TOOK OUR LANGUAGE FROM US WOMEN WAS RAPPED BABY WAS CUT FROM THE WOMEN STOMACH AND SOLD AT AN AUCTION BLOCK, MEN PENIS CAUSE CUT AND HUNG ON THE TREES. hOW GUICKLY WE FORGOT ALL OF THIS. BLACK PEOPLE NEVER KILLED THEIR CHILDREN ,PARENTS BEFORE. WE ARE FOLLOWING THE WHITE PEOPLE WAYS, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFE ON WHATS GOING WITH IN THIS COUNTRY, DON'T FALL INTO THIS DEVIL TRAP. ASKED THE LORD GOD TO COME INTO YOUR LIFE AND HELP YOU SEE THIS THROUGH. HE IS REAL. OUR ANCESTOR SHED THEIR BLOOD IN THIS COUNTRY FOR FREE AND TO MAKE A PATH FOR THE FUTURE FOR US. LIVE IT OUT, AND KEEP TGHE FAITH LIKE ADAM CLAYTON POWELL HAD ONCE SAID. MAY THE LORD GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL.
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