Abandoned Baby

I am commenting on the abandoned baby who was found in late January in an outdoor stairwell. This baby had been later named, Angelica- Leslie by the Children's Aid Society, for no one has come forward claiming to know or be her parents.

I would like not to focus as much on this horrible crime, but rather on the place that she was abandoned. I would like to apply the phenomenological approach to this space, which is anything that presents itself to experience; appearances and essences.

I have noticed that stairwells produce a negative image and feeling. It is a place where we as people are warned to be careful. We are fearful of being attached, mugged, or rape. Outdoor stairwells usually smell, of urine, and or garbage. In fact, they are usually littered with garbage.

Stairwells may be a place where the forgotten go to find shelter (homeless people). And in society we have been taught to regard homeless people as people to avoid, that they are crazy and dangerous.

Overall, stairwells, especially in an urban setting are a place where one is taught to be careful and cautious, as well as a place where things and people are disregarded, hidden in the corners and cracks. Where people expose and release their bodily functions, and where the unwanted go to find shelter.

So it is not a surprise to me that someone would choose a outdoor stairwell to dispose of someone/something they didn't want, what sadness me is that it was a helpless child.

Laura Hammond