Day By Day



Sunday, November 25, 2007

What's Wrong With This Picture?

One of the most aggravating thing about living in South Texas is the incredibly banal attitude exhibited sometimes by it's residents, as well as it's public officials. I've heard this referred to as the "manana mindset" -- sort of a "who cares" attitude that's prevalent among some (but by no means all) hispanics.

From today's San Antonio Express-News:

4 Kids Home Alone During House Fire

Sun Nov 25, 11:16 AM ET

Four kids were home alone when fire ripped through their South Side home Saturday. Firefighters at the scene said it appears the family was using the stove to heat up their home in the 200 block of Pleasanton Street when something went wrong.

Four children between the ages of 9 and 14 were home at the time of the fire, but all of them made it out OK, and for the most part, uninjured. However, a 9-year-old boy was taken to a hospital for observation.

San Antonio District Fire Chief Neal Giles said said the fire could have been prevented. "It always seems like (there's) a trend every year that when it starts cooling off, people (with) open-flame heaters forget about them, put something too close to it or on top of it," he said. "Just be real cautions. We don't want anymore problems. People being burned out of their house right before the holidays."

The fire caused about $20,000 in damage to the house itself and another $5,000 in losses to the contents inside, firefighters said.


Okay, here are my question:

1.) Where were the parents of these kids?

2.) Why wasn't CPS called to take custody of these kids?

3.) Why weren't the parents arrested for endangering their kids like this?

4.) And all the SAFD can say is, "Just be real cautions. We don't want anymore problems."?????


So who had the bigger manana mindset -- the cops, the firefighters, or the parents?

~~JD~~

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