.The verdict is in.

The Casey Anthony verdict has come back. "Not guilty". As soon as I heard it and had Cheyenne repeat it to me as I was in pure shock. I knew that a blog post on the subject would have to follow. But there were just so many different points and angles to cover, so many feelings and over it all a heavy heavy sense of sadness. And I just couldn't do it. It was the last day of a truly wonderful four day holiday weekend and it was sunny and warm and my own healthy happy baby was full of joy and life and wanted to go outside and play and all that I wanted to do was go out there with her and give her the love that Caylee Anthony should have been enjoying as well. I've had time to think on it and the weekend is now over so here are my thoughts {in bullet points so that I don't ramble too much}:

*Obviously I {and the whole country} believe that the verdict was "wrong". I believe that the mountain of circumstantial evidence proved {to me} that Casey Anthony murdered her child. Without a doubt I believe that is what happened.

*I do not believe in an afterlife of any kind. Not heaven, hell or reincarnation on any level so I don't get solace in believing that Caylee is in "heaven" or that justice will be served when Casey takes an express train to "hell". There is no solace in the case {for me} and that was/is a big part of the awful sadness of the whole situation.

*A very painfully sad reality is that this is not a lone case. Children are horribly abused in inexplicable ways every day in this country. Beautiful, wonderful, innocent little children die more often than we'd like to think about. I'm not sure why the Anthony case garnered so much more attention than those other children {mostly likely race, socioeconomic class, etc play a part}. My only hope is that everyone that is outraged by this verdict and situation will use their anger to look toward their own community and help other children that need the advocate that Caylee needed and didn't have.

*At the end of the day, although I do not at all agree with the verdict I do agree with our judicial system. Coming on the heels of the 235th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence I think it's fitting to remind people that one of the reasons we celebrate every 4th of July is that we enjoy the right to have a fair trail with our fates in the hands of an unbiased jury of our own peers. We aren't {or at least, we shouldn't be} celebrating wars over oil or the ridiculous belief that our freedoms are somehow being protected from people half a world away. No, our "freedoms" are being protected every day when people get to go up against a jury of their peers instead of a head of government. We don't hand out automatic death sentences in this country because {on this subject at least} our founding fathers we correct and knew that everyone deserves a fair trial.

The decision has been made. I don't agree with it. I'm sad and angry about it. But, what's done is done. Nothing will bring Caylee back and Casey will walk free whether I like it or not, whether I agree or not. All we can do is move on and try to be better people.