Happiness and horror, kindness and evil, joy and woe, worry and relief, tragedy and miracles, heroism and cowardice, yin and yang -- take your pick of these comparative couplings and apply them to the stories of Geontae Glass and Penelope Kim. Once you know their stories, it won't help your heart any, but it may ease your mind just a little.
When last week began, Geontae and Penelope, 5 and 4 respectively, lived lives much the same as other pre-K and kindergarten students. They laughed, they smiled and, maybe most importantly, they were blissfully unaware of the dark side of both mother and human nature. By week's end, one would be rescued from freezing temperatures only to receive the cold, hard news that her father had died in a vain attempt to save her life. The other would be laid to rest in a pine box after being beaten savagely by his mother's boyfriend. Both stories would break the heart of a nation -- one out of respect for a father's dying-breath heroism, the other in horror at a father-figure's depraved indifference to the little boy who looked up to him.
The picture of Geontae Glass that was offered to the media after his death is one that most folks will find hard to look at for long. The photo shows the child from Gadsden, Ala., eating what appears to be a picnic lunch. He is sitting on a blanket holding a juice pouch while his food sits on a SpongeBob SquarePants tote. The photo is not unlike one that almost every parent has of his or her toddler. However, it's the smile that gets you. Geontae looks at the camera with a smile spreading across his face that starts in Los Angeles and ends in downtown Manhattan. His eyes twinkle like lights in a menorah, and you find yourself wanting to climb into the picture and force the hands of time to stand still forever.
It's hard to look at the picture, because it forces your mind to think about another photograph -- the one most certainly taken by the police examiner after little Geontae was found beaten to death. The thought of that smile forever banished and the light in those twinkling eyes eternally extinguished is a burden too heavy to bear for those of us connected to the child only through the impersonal introduction of dried newsprint.
Imagine the grief that must be felt by Geontae's sister, teacher and classmates. Imagine it because of the people that knew and loved the little boy in his short life -- they are the only ones worthy of your sympathy. His mother, Shalinda, and her boyfriend, Kevin Andre Towles, have both been charged in his murder.
What did Geontae do, you might ask, to deserve to be viciously beaten to death? He had the audacity to bring home a poor progress report -- from kindergarten! Police say that Towles went into a rage after hearing of the report and fatally beat the 5-year-old. Not only did Shalinda Glass not protect her son, but she then went to great lengths to cover for her murdering boyfriend by phoning in a phony 911 call saying her car, with Geontae inside, had been stolen from in front of a convenience store. Again, all of this happened because a 5-year-old came home with a poor progress report from kindergarten.
The police unraveled the lies and charged Towles with murder and Glass with hindering prosecution. As a parent with a 5-year-old, I know that I speak for millions of you when I say that there is no sentence harsh enough to serve as punishment for anyone who takes from the world the mirth and merriment contained within a kindergartner's soul.
Thank God that Penelope Kim knew James as her father and not Kevin Andre Towles. James Kim proved himself to be a loving husband, a protective dad and a hero for the ages. In short, everything that a murdering coward like
Towles never was and never will be.
Kim, along with his wife, Kati, Penelope and 7-month-old daughter Sabine, were traveling home to San Francisco after a Thanksgiving vacation in the Pacific Northwest when they missed a turn on the highway just past Portland. They ended up stranded on a road used by whitewater rafters in warm months, but routinely ignored and unplowed during the cold season. Eventually, their car ran out of gas and they burned their tires to stay warm. After a week of being stranded and with his wife nursing both their children as their food supply was nearly exhausted, James Kim made a fateful decision to head out on foot to try and secure help. It is a decision that is now credited with saving the life of his wife and daughters while costing him his own. It is also the reason why James Kim will forever be remembered as a hero. Two days after he set out into the frigid temperatures, helicopter rescuers found the Kim car and transported
Kati and the girls to safety. They credited a "ping" from a cell phone that James Kim had the presence of mind to keep on as being the main reason they were able to find the family. Two more days would pass before the body of James Kim was found dead from hypothermia. He had hiked nearly 10 miles through icy creeks and tough terrain. Police say that he tore off parts of a map to leave a literal paper trail and wrote out an S.O.S. stating that his family was in dire need of assistance.
James Kim may have died alone in that desolate section of Oregon, but he also went to his great beyond in the hearts and minds of millions. People will remember James Kim as a man who did what we all would hope ourselves capable of if faced with a similar predicament that threatened the lives of our loved ones. He walked until he couldn't walk any farther and he laid down his life so that his wife and children could have theirs. He drew his last breath so that his daughter Penelope might draw millions more of her own.
Looking back to the pairings that started this column, it occurs to me that it could very well be about Kevin Andre Towles and James Kim. While Kim showed his family kindness and joy, Towles only bestowed horror and evil upon his. Kim will be remembered as a man of miracles and heroism, Towles' legacy will be one of tragedy and cowardice. One man is surely the yin of everything we espouse to be, while the other is the yang of everything we lock our doors at night to keep out.
But at its core, this column is about the bond that connects 5-year-old Geontae Glass and 4-year-old Penelope Kim. Though they never met they are soul mates none the less. Penelope will grow up to be comforted by stories of her father, Jim, and the love he showed her and her mom and sister after he kissed them goodbye for what would be the last time. Geontae will be laid to rest and never again have to hear the name of a man he should never have come in contact with.
Tragically, one familiar phrase connects their life stories in a most simple and heartbreaking manner: All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | December 12 2006 |