In all likelihood, by the time you read these words the decision will already have been made.
The United States Supreme Court was scheduled to meet in conference on the case of the child known as Richard last Friday. Before the court was a petition asking that the nine justices grant the boy a hearing-that the justices agree to review the decision by the Illinois Supreme Court that ordered the 4-year-old boy removed “forthwith” from the adoptive home where he had lived all his life. The Illinois Supreme Court’s order, of course, was carried out on April 30. In the seven weeks that have passed since that Sunday he was taken away, the child has been permitted no contact, no phone calls, no visits with the people he loved as his parents, or with the 7-year-old brother he loved.
Unless the U.S. Supreme Court altered its schedule last Friday-something the court always has the option to do-the justices probably have made their determination. They either will agree to hear Richard’s case, or they will decline to hear it. If they have made their decision, it could be announced as early as Monday, according to the court’s spokeswoman.
So what can be said now? If the decision has been made, it has been made, and we can only wait to hear what it is.
Yet in these hours of waiting, there does seem to be a point worth taking up. It goes beyond all the technicalities involved in this child’s case, all the interpretations of the law. It goes to the heart of what is involved here. It is about the concept of rights versus the concept of responsibilities.
The rights of the biological parents have been scrupulously looked out for by the Illinois Supreme Court. The biological father speaks of his right to have his son; the biological mother speaks of her right to learn from her mistake-her mistake was willingly placing her child for adoption, then sending word to the biological father that the baby was dead.
So their rights are intact. The boy-carried from his home in tears-has paid the price for their rights. And while they have often talked about their rights, they have seldom talked about their responsibilities.
That little boy was not responsible for the fact that two adults became angry with each other while the woman was pregnant. That little boy was not responsible for the fact that while the woman was pregnant the biological father was in Europe with an old girlfriend. That little boy was not responsible for the fact that the woman, while pregnant, moved out of the home she shared with the father, moved into a shelter for abused women and said she was a victim, then later contended this was a lie. That little boy was not responsible for the woman placing him for adoption; he was not responsible for her deciding to announce that he was dead when he was, in fact, alive and living in a loving home.
He was not responsible for the woman refusing to divulge the name of the father. He was not, in fact, responsible for any of this-yet he is the person being so cruelly punished for the irresponsibilities of others. That is what is so terrifying about what has been done to him: The irresponsibilities of the people who did this to him have been rewarded, in the name of their rights. They were not willing to take responsibility for their mistakes-and because they were not willing, he was made to endure the pain.
And as the lies continue, he keeps enduring that pain. How else would you explain the broken promise to him-the meanness of promising him, on the day he was taken, that he could talk to his brother and parents any time he wanted, could visit them and keep them in his life? Of all the tragedies forced upon that poor child, this is perhaps the most unforgivable: that he was told he could see his brother and parents the next day, and the day after, and whenever he wished, and that still, now, seven weeks later, it has yet to happen.
Everything we as a society try to teach children-that honesty is to be honored, that mistakes are the responsibility of the people who make them, that if you have done nothing wrong then you need not fear being punished-everything has been mocked by what has been done to Richard. Every value children are supposed to believe has been turned into a sadistic taunt.
In all likelihood the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court has already been made. We can only wait for the announcement. There is still time, though, to say a prayer for a little boy who never had a voice.
