Since we don't have instinct to automate our responses, knowing what to do at the appropriate time is an important trait for humanity. Sometimes a person is in a predicament for which there really is nothing that can be done. At other times however, there is an appropriate action, but the weak abruptly go blind to the obvious.

The inability to perceive reality and act in accordance with it is anti-survival, therefore immoral.

A horror story
I heard a story the other night. Although what I heard didn't have as many dramatic details as many horror stories I've heard, this one was more revolting than most … since it was also a true story. This was one of those tales that bothered me to the point that I didn't know whether to shit or go blind. That night, I even experienced nightmares as a result of what I heard.

I was visiting a couple of friends -- let's call them Mort and Joan. Over dinner, they told me about their niece, a sweet girl of seventeen (I've met her a few times) who's getting detoxed in a drug rehab clinic thousands of miles away from her family. During her counseling at this clinic, a painful memory from her childhood came boiling up from her subconsciousness, like an imperfectly healed wound bursting open. This memory coincides with an event -- and a strong emotion -- that Joan, her aunt, remembers as well.

Here's an abbreviated version of the story, third- and fourth-hand. There may be details that I missed in the telling, since I spent much of the story feeling like I was going to puke. But I got the gist of it. It was enough.

An eight-year-old girl comes home crying. She says she wrecked her bike. She is bruised and bleeding -- vaginally.

…Now, I don't know about you, but that much makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck already. I'm no pediatrician, but vaginal bleeding in a little girl sounds like a markedly serious condition -- no matter what the cause. And what the hell kind of bizarre bicycle accident would cause vaginal bleeding, anyway? In case you haven't thought much about it, there's a distinct difference between boys and girls. I seem to remember a time or three when I slammed the old egg sack down on the frame of a bike, but after all, they do just hang out there. Boys were designed by some joker who maybe thought that we should experience immediate painful consequences for being oafish.

Girls are different. All their delicate equipment is tucked safely inside their bodies. Maybe it's evolution or maybe it's a creator that felt like being extra kind to the cute half of the race, but in any case, girls are designed to avoid that kind of damage. …

Horror story, continued
Aunt Joan suspected something other than a bike wreck -- something much worse. She attempted to communicate her fears to her brother and sister-in-law (the girl's parents), but whatever it is that slams some people's minds shut at precisely the worst possible moment kicked in. The parents were unable to be convinced -- unable to even consider the possibility -- of anything worse than a simple accident. Eventually, Joan decided that she must be the one that's wrong ... decided that she was overreacting. In other words, she suspended her own judgment in the face of the majority.

As it turned out, though, Joan's strong impression was correct. The girl had been brutally raped by a neighbor.

Nine years go by. The rape of a little girl, hidden in shame from her family, and suppressed within the dark folds of the brain has finally borne its poisonous fruit. She is now a young lady in great psychological pain -- disturbed enough that she has been trying to remove that pain with chemistry. It took psychotherapy in a drug rehabilitation facility for this horrible memory to come to light -- the first step in what could be the road to some peace -- hopefully.

To say I was distressed when I heard the story would be an understatement. I have known several women who were raped, and it always tears me up inside when I hear about it. I have not always been in a situation when I was able to do anything about it. If rape is the worst kind of nightmare for an adult, how much worse is it for a child?

But even that didn't disturb me as much as what happened after the incident. The little girl went home bleeding to a family who didn't take her to a doctor. (Any competent MD would have discovered the truth.) Nor were they willing to even consider the idea that something truly ghastly had happened, when the possibility was raised. They did nothing that they should have done … considered nothing that they should have considered. Since even shitting would have required a bit of premeditation, they opted to go blind instead.

I've got to ask
What kind of society do we live in where parents are unwilling to care enough, they won't even accept the responsibilities of making sure their children are OK? One answer is that which you see around you -- a society made up of a lot of people who must turn to anything that's available to alleviate their pain. The abuse of drugs is a popular method. They have been employed by the medical profession to alleviate discomfort since before acetylsalicylic acid was sucked out of tree bark by people hoping to chase the demons pounding in their heads.

One degree worse
It could be argued -- and may even be true -- that these parents were simply unable to deal with the possibility that their eight-year-old daughter had been raped. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and posit that they are probably both stupid and ignorant. That does not remove their responsibility.

One more time: The inability to perceive reality and act in accordance with it is anti-survival, therefore immoral.

Similar things have happened to children and a parent (or parents) verifiably knew about it, yet did nothing to stop it. Take this story, for example. In 1991, Anthony Wynn of New York pleads guilty to raping and sodomizing his own daughters, aged 4 and 18 months. The judge gives him six months in jail and five years probation. He is ordered to stay away from his daughters for those five years.

…Six months? I know people who are rotting in prison for years for the consensual 'crime' of the recreational use of marijuana -- a substance that is unequivocally safer than alcohol. The judge gives this fucker six months for forcibly shanking -- not just little girls -- but his own daughters? It is inequities like this that make me feel like screaming in protest every time I hear the term 'justice system'. There is very little justice to be found there. You know it and I know it, but what do we do about it? But that's not the end of it…

In February of 1998, Anthony Wynn was arrested again for raping and sodomizing his daughters some more who, by then, were 11 and 8 years of age. He was putting it to his own children during an eight month period, from July '97 to February '98.

What is wrong with this picture?
So, where was Andrea Mosely -- the children's mother -- when this convicted incestuous child-rapist was once again slamming his wee-wee into her children's bodies? Somewhere else, apparently, but it simply wasn't that big a deal to her. Even when they were finally able to tell her about what was going on, she told them to keep quiet. It wasn't until they told an instructor at an after-school program (disobedient brats!) that the police got involved. For this, the mother has been charged with "endangering the welfare of a child" -- two counts -- and released on her own recognizance.

… When India set off a few test nukes a few weeks ago and dared Pakistan to do something about it, I worried a little about the possibility of atomic war. But when I hear about the things that Anthony Wynn and Andrea Mosely did -- and some son-of-a-bitch in a robe that insists that you must address him as "your honor" will only give the vermin a few months for it -- I wonder if the atomic sterilization of the planet might be a good thing in the long run …

There actually are reasons why the degenerates only get locked up for a short time, among them the fact that America's jails and prisons are overflowing. There's no place to put the bad guys any longer, so a lot of the scum has to be rotated in and back out pretty quickly. A lot of tax money is utilized to build more cells each year.

Are people just getting more evil all the time? Not necessarily. In fact, violent crime in my country continues to drop each year. So who's hogging all that space?

Who is in lock-up?
Prisoners of war. You see, some time back, our leaders pretty much gave up on the war on poverty (what fun is a war when you can't take prisoners) and initiated a war on drugs. Recreational users -- who aren't hurting anybody -- are put in cells that should be reserved for the real criminals. There are more mandatory sentences on the actions of consenting adults then there are on killers, kidnappers and baby-rapists.

The war on drugs has become so insane that farmers are no longer allowed to grow hemp (a cannabis plant with less than 1% THC) for rope, paper, linen and lubricants. It seems that he thinks that hemp and marijuana are the same plant. How does a person with no medical background become a drug czar?

Oh, right! He's a general. When they say war, by gawd, they mean it!

Justice of the Beast
While government is so busy putting people away for a long time for consensual activity, the real criminals go free. What is the purpose of government? Since government is so busy with other matters to make sure that little girls are protected, who will protect them?

I very much hope the best for the seventeen-year-old girl who is getting some help for her addiction. Ironically, if she can't stay clean, she could very well be re-victimized by our government, if they decided to put her in a cell for awhile.

I wonder what kind of slimeball would have to be let out, to make room for her.

Also see...

• Why The Guestbook Is Dead
• The Third Best Thing
• Sexual Exploitation: a Triad
• Totalitarian Burger 12: Lawrence's Girl
• Totalitarian Burger 4: The Bum
• Become a Turnkey and Get Some!
• Malevolent Prohibition
• Mislaid American Rights