Who is Responsible?

When the first preview of Disney Pixar's Cars was shown when my youngest son was two and a half, I knew he would be obsessed with everything about it. His mouth fell open, his eyes grew wide, as he turned to my husband and me, looking fir validation that what he'd seen was real. I was prepared to buy movies, video games, action figures, and lots and lots of cars. You can imagine my horror, when, as I sat on the stationary bike at the gym Tuesday, I saw Sarge, one of the Cars characters, flashed on the giant TV screen, on the growing list of tainted toys.

We don't have Sarge in the current group of toys my son plays with. It isn't in the reserve stash of toys waiting for birthdays and holidays, either. We do have 6 or 9 other Cars characters and it's only a matter of time before we hear about their recall, too. My son came to me last night and showed me a plastic Sarge he had gotten at a birthday party. "Does this have bad paint?" He looked so sad. "No," I said. "But there is a chance that some of your other cars might. If they do you won't be able to play with them anymore." He didn't cry. He walked away quietly with his precious car in his hand.

My son loves his Cars, much as his brother loved his trains. If I had to take them away from him, it would be very devastating. Yes, I know they're only toys, but they are important to him. The CEO of Mattel had a press conference the other day and looked remorseful, but as far as I'm concerned, he's full of it. Mattel sells toys to make money. They could have put a process in place decades ago to ensure that all manufacturers of their products were in compliance of US safety standards. This quality control process would have cost money, it would have cut into the margin. Instead, in the case of Sarge, Mattel accuses the Chinese company of violating the rules by using a subcontractor to paint Sarge.

Ideally, I'd like to see a Congressional investigation. I'd like to see Bob Eckert field phone calls from every 3-5 year old in the US whose Mommy had to take their toys away. Passing the blame off to the Chinese is inexcusable.