Explaining why somebody did something, is not the same as justifying what they did.
Since some things clearly do not go without saying, let me say them as clearly as I can.
I feel that some people are deliberately missing the fact that I have condemned child abuse on numerous occasions.
I have also spoken out against drug use and addiction, and of course I agree that human trafficking is one of humanity’s greatest modern scourges.
All these being obvious truths, less obvious is the fact that many people are unable to participate in a critical thinking process that requires polite discourse and digging deep intellectually.
This is especially true when the subject matter is both sensitive and highly emotive, which Joshlin Smith’s disappearance clearly is.
When it comes to Kelly Smith, I am not a supporter of either her or her actions.
But I do try to understand what motivates people to do things that are as despicable as she is accused of doing.
If she did indeed sell Joshlin for any amount of money, whether for muti or into human trafficking, then she deserves the harshest punishment the law is allowed to mete out.
Then the question becomes, how do we prevent something like that from happening again.
This is the question I have been attempting to grapple with and engage you with.
The answer is not as simple as “she made a choice. Other mothers have it worse, and they don’t do that”.
What many people don’t want to hear is the role we as a society play in creating people like that.
This is where some readers start losing their minds, because while they are ready to criticise, vilify and shift blame, they will never be gracious enough to (even partly) accept responsibility in any way whatsoever.
In this way, they don’t ever have to offer anything more than a prayer and an angry Facebook comment.
From a cursory glance at their Facebook pages, many of those who struck out against me most viciously, are unsurprisingly devout Christians.
Despite the Biblical instruction to not judge, they are obviously willing and eager to cast that aside and judge as harshly as possible.
Sadly, Joshlin remains missing; Kelly remains a social outcast and other women facing the exact same choices, remain unseen, unheard and with impossible daily choices.
They better make sure they make the “right” choices that some of our readers agree with, because others mos have it worse, right.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za