NOTE: This post is unrelated to triathlon and is likely to become a rant on society. My first blog was a fairly successful political blog and that part of my nature is taking over for a bit.
WARNING: This post is likely to contain information we'd rather our kids avoid. While the language will be reasonable, the subject is difficult. If you are a younger reader, please go here for an article about the state of youth triathlon, or talk with your parents before reading this post.
A punk rock group called The Bloodhound Gang made onto the "mainstream" radio stations a few years ago with a song called "Animal Planet." While many people were aghast at the content of the song, it was very tame by Bloodhound Gang standards. Many of their songs couldn't and shouldn't be played over the airwaves unless the station is willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
And right now, one of their songs is the only thing that seems to fit my mood. It's called, "I Hope You Die." An evil thought, I know. Then again, true evil is the source of my current state of mind.
Today, the body of 12-year old Brooke Bennett was found by authorities in Vermont. For those unfamiliar with the case, Brooke vanished on June 25th. While her family believed she had gone to visit a friend's family member in the hospital, it came out that she might have left to meet someone she had met through a social networking site.
As the investigation developed, we learned Brooke's uncle had been arrested on an unrelated sexual assault charge. He is alleged to have recruited a young girl into a "sex ring." Shortly after that, Brooke's former step-father was arrested on obstruction of justice charges related to the case.
At this point, evidence supports that Brooke did indeed make arrangements to meet someone from the social networking site. Unfortunately, evidence also points to the uncle as the creator of the profile Brooke contacted. Other information further links the uncle to Brooke after she left to meet the On-line contact.
There are a great many things I consider evil in this world. I believe the people responsible for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center represent evil. I believe the terrorists waging war on innocent victims around the world are evil. And I believe anyone who would do what was done to Brooke is pure evil. There is something wrong with them that goes so far beyond any understanding of the human mind that it can only be described as pure, unadulterated evil.
The rational part of my mind urges caution and seeks justice. That part of me knows that both the uncle and the ex-stepfather must be tried in court based on the available evidence. Until that time, they are innocent.
Another part of my mind, the part more tied to my soul, the part that loves all children and wholeheartedly believes that the primary role of all adults is to absolutely protect them from harm, that part of me has an entirely different reaction.
It wants to scream. It wants me to grab my gun and ensure that these monsters never have another opportunity to even THINK about harming another child. It wants to ensure that our world is rid of the evil that did this to Brooke.
That part of my brain cannot be allowed to foster more evil, though. So, it is forced to yield to logic and rational thought. But the whole time it yells, "Have you no SOUL?" And quietly at first, then more and more loudly, it does the one thing it CAN do. It rebels inwardly. It starts to sing a song. A song from The Bloodhound Gang. "I Hope You Die!" And it focuses on a verse that talks about someone winding up in jail. And it hopes that the guilty party, whether Brooke's uncle and ex-stepfather or someone else, can become the focus of the song.
I hope your cellmate thinks he's god, but CNN refers to him as Bowling Bag Ball Bob,
Service time for abuse of a corpse, only this time the victim's a clydesdale horse
Edited portion so bad I won't even type it
I hope he grins like Jack Nicholson, and forces you to play a game called Balls on Chin,
And whatever happens next is all a blur, but you remember "fist" can be a verb,
And when you finally regain consciousness, you're bound and gagged in a wedding dress,
And the prison guard looks the other way, cause he's the guy you flipped the bird the other day.
I hope this helps to EMPHASIZE!
I hope this helps to CLARIFY!
I hope you DIE!
Something has gone horribly wrong with the programming of large groups of people in this country. We have teachers think it's okay to have sex with their students. We have priests who think it's okay to molest altar servers. We have grown men who believe it's okay to take sick fantasies and turn them into reality. They prey upon our daughters and steal their innocence. And sometimes they steal their lives.
It's evil. And it has to stop. Something has to change the direction in which we are headed. We all have different ideas of what that "something" might be. Our children are our most valuable treasure. They should be treated as such. They should not be treated as sexual objects. And they certainly shouldn't be treated as so much garbage to be discarded when they no longer please us.
Justice will be served in this case. The police have too many leads and too much evidence for that not to be the case. But what about other cases? What about the children we aren't even aware are being victimized? What about the children whose very souls are being destroyed by monsters that live in their houses instead of under their beds? How do we, as a country, find justice for them? What changes can be made to protect them?
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