Because of the construction on forest park parkway, I have been driving home by way of Delmar, and in doing so yesterday, I drove by something very upsetting.

On the South side of Delmar, it looked like a car had hit a child. The child, lying on the ground, looked to be about 5 years old, and he wasn't moving. As I drove past, somebody yelled, asking if I had a cell phone. I pulled to the side, called 911, made sure an ambulance was on its way, and then drove on home, pretty much shaking from what I had seen.

This is a parent's worst nightmare.

And so I'm driving, and thinking "why do bad things happen to good people?" I admit I didn't know much about the 5-year-old, and he may be fine for all I know (see below). But the question still bugged me. And then an answer came to me: "Because we have free choice". I'm still puzzling out what that meant, and I'll post more about that later, but it's not often a question like that gets an answer.

Meanwhile, I called the U City police today to find out if the boy was OK -- they wouldn't tell me anything "because of federal law".