| | Amidst the cybernightmare of Xmas shopping, the logistical nightmare
of Xmas travel and the emotional nightmare of spending Xmas with your
relatives, perhaps you can spare a thought between courses of bird and bowl
games for Chancellor Lee Adams.
He is the boy born to Cherica Adams and, we presume, Rae Carruth, who has been dealt a particularly terrible hand even before he was supposed to be born. His mother is dead, shot and killed by someone, and his father
will be accused of and tried for the crime. Chancellor is famous before his
time, and for the worst possible reason.
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There are harder ways to begin one's life, but it is hard to envision
them.
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Who better to receive a good thought this holiday season? Or for that
matter, any season?
By now, you're all caught up on the horrific saga surrounding his
birth, caused as it was by the shots that killed his mother. You know how
Carruth has been arraigned and charged first with having arranged the
shooting and then with having been part of a group that actually performed the deed itself. And now
you know that he was caught in Tennessee, hiding in the car trunk of
another woman, presumably to avoid capture.
And there is a part of you wondering if, only five years after the
ghastliness of the O.J. Simpson murder and civil trials, we are heading
for a smaller-scale version of the same.
True, Carruth is not of Simpson's football or celebrity class, nor was
Adams a Los Angeles social figure. Even the bizarre chase that resulted in
his capture was done without the help of the Los Angeles media air force.
But at some point Carruth will be brought to trial for what most
people will agree was a particularly horrible act, the murder of a pregnant
woman. In all likelihood, that trial will be televised, and analyzed ad
nauseam by Court TV and whatever Charlotte-area and national media outlets can find their way there.
And that is when Chancellor Adams' own nightmare begins.
So far, the child has spent most of his time just trying to stay alive
in a Charlotte-area hospital, and there are indications that he might just
succeed. To win that battle alone would make him a special child.
But special sometimes is less preferable than normal, and unless we
are badly misjudging America's sometimes warped sense of celebrity, normal may be beyond his reach.
There will be the trial. There may well be a custody fight of some
length between the Adams and Carruth families for the boy, and there will
be the prying eyes and stage whispers of a community that will know him
mostly for what he does not have -- a mother, and perhaps a father.
There are harder ways to begin one's life, but it is hard to envision
them.
So far, the story has been on some Page Ones, but not exclusively. So
far, it has been mostly a disturbing curiosity for a public that long ago
lost its innocence about jurisprudence and media.
But as the story has taken more and more grisly twists, one can see
the gathering storm that may swallow Chancellor Adams whole, if he and his guardians are not extraordinarily strong.
The Simpson children were caught in their own horrible vortex after
the murder of their mother, Nicole, which is technically still unsolved.
There was, however, a period in which they grew up as normal, if privileged
children. Only they can decide whether they have been blessed or cursed.
Chancellor Adams hasn't been afforded even that luxury. His
difficulties began in vitro, and they will continue and likely even magnify
as he goes through infancy, toddlerhood and the other stages of life we
take for granted in our own children.
And that is why sparing a thought for him is an act of kindness in a
season that is supposed to be about that above all else. The story of
Chancellor Adams could be a dreadful tragedy, or it could be a triumph of
the human spirit. Today, all he has is hope, not only that he can stay
alive, but that he can clear the other hurdles as they come.
Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Examiner is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. | |
ALSO SEE
Police bring Carruth back to North Carolina
Carruth's girlfriend buried in Charlotte
With talk of death penalty, possible deals surface
AUDIO/VIDEO
 George Seifert is sympathetic toward Cherica Adams' family.
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