My Email Read On The BBC World Service
Something very exciting happened to me today! Most mornings when I am at work, I tune into NPR to give me something informative to listen to. Every morning at 9 AM (Eastern) they broadcast the BBC World Service, an hour-long worldwide news broadcast. I find the program to be quite outstanding.
Today, on this particular morning, they debated a story that is stirring in the United States, which until today, I was unaware of. The parents of a young disabled girl have had doctors perform surgery on her and give her some type of hormone concoction to essentially stunt her growth. She will remain a child forever and never grow into an adult. While I know they may have their own reasons for choosing this, I still find it disturbing that they call her their “Pillow Angel”.
As always, the anchor asked for listener feedback, as they do every day after a hot story. Today, shooting from the hip, I wrote them a brief email. At the end of the program, pushing 10 AM, they actually read my letter on the air! I was floored! Owen Bennet Jones was hosting today. He said, “…and here is a letter from Craig in the U.S.” They didn’t give my full name, thankfully, but as he started reading, I scrambled to pull up my computer’s Gmail window, showing my sent message. I then read along as he echoed my exact words to a worldwide, global audience. What are the chances that they would broadcast my letter, of all the ones they admitted were pouring in? I was, and still am, absolutely stunned.
Below is my letter (which I am a tad embarrassed about, since I wish I could have worded it a bit more clever than I did at the time when I hammered it out). I fully admit that I can’t imagine how difficult their daily lives must be, and I don’t really know what my opinion is of her condition or of her parents difficult decisions without experiencing it first hand. But the story made it to the news desk because it was so stirring. Hyped up on coffee, I was stirred and at that moment, I wrote:
I have just learned about the 9-year-old girl Ashley who had her growth stunted by her parents. This is outright child abuse. I don’t know their circumstances at home, and I certainly couldn’t care for this child 24/7. However, the disturbing piece of this story is the fact that they call her “Pillow Angel”. That lends me to believe that they wanted to keep her small as much for their own reasons as to whatever benefit it would have for her care. I feel like these parents are very sick people and should have their child taken away from them. –Craig
