 The fae were walking past my window,  About me
My other blogsSharing Rhiannon Glow Diva FriendsBarb's homeschool Bear's Blurbs Cerr's Cauldron the dirt of a witch Grumpy Gal Kat's Journal Mab of Dream Witch Lessons FavoritesGlow Diva Candles Mothering Slate Rense NPR ArchivesNovember 2003 December 2003 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 April 2007
|
 |  |
  |  |
 |
|
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Jessica Lunsford This poor girl. Why does the media have to release horrifying, graphic details of this poor little girl's final hours? Isn't it enough that we can imagine, to some degree, what was inflicted on her? A convicted sex offender confessed to murdering her, for Pete's sake! Why have it spelled out in detail, robbing her of her dignity, and her family of their own personal pain? To make a headline? She was a child! Give her some respect. Give her family some decent human courtesy. I feel nauseous now that I have every gritty detail and can envision exactly what happened. I'm in tears, again, just thinking about her. And now I can't purge the horrible visual from my inner mind, because it was all spelled out for me. I'm not linking to the article here, because I regret clicking on it myself, so I wouldn't want to inflict it on anyone else. I really hate what this society is becoming. Or has become, perhaps. I keep getting shocked, so maybe I'm just behind... I was too afraid to read the one about Sarah Lunde. I really hope the gov't gets on the ball and does something about these sexual predators. It's ridiculous that they are out on the streets doing this sick shit to our innocents. Every story that happens, I think about my own sweet baby girl, and it scares the living daylights out of me. I want to just wrap her in a bubble and keep her safe from all the horrors of this world.  Posted by Jodi Selander at 10:53 PM ...
|
3 Comments:
My father's next!!
Cynicism is such a cop-out,
I know...
~ 'Somedays I See the Point' by Billy Bragg
Still I'll do the cynical bit here, because I've just been reading the news and I feel cynical. I'll do peace and love after another cup of tea and more nicotine.
There's two reasons, I reckon. One is to create a culture of fear and the other is to feed a hunger for bad news in society.
The latter first - our world is too safe. We haven't got the janjaweed killing us as they have in Dafur; we haven't got millions dying of an undefined disease as you spoke about in a previous blog about Angola; we haven't got guerilla warfare in our very homes as they have in Columbia etc etc, but we do have all these survival instincts which need to be kept honed.
Without a real and present danger all around us, we instead scour the newspapers, watch the soap operas and inside ourselves prepare almost subconsciously for that situation happening to us and our loved ones. Then it's passed. Our instincts tell us that we have to do this and, perhaps, they are right. Those thoughts, indignation and plans would come to the surface if we found ourselves in similar situations.
Then there's the former - the social scare. If there is no constant danger then how on earth would those in authority be able to justify their actions in things like Patriot Act. I suppose I could have come up with a much better example, but I only know the British ones. I learned about social scares firsthand during the Miners' Strike - make a baddie of something or some cause and you can crush them or it without any public outcry at all.
So what's this got to do with reporting about children getting horrifically hurt? To my cyncial mind there are more pros than cons in keeping people in fear (and not finding out things like, per percentage of the population, there are far fewer cases of child kidnap, child murder and sexual assault now than there were in the 1960s, when kids tended to play out unsupervised. It's just better reported. And also things like 90% of these things are visited upon the children by members of their own family. It's statistically very rare for a stranger to do it.):
* It's good for business. Parents who can't leave their kids unsupervised tend to take them out more than my own parents' generation did. Therefore more money is spent in shops, cinemas, made-for-purpose play-areas etc.
* It's good for conditioning. By ensuring that kids watch more telly or go out to regulatory places only, they spend less time in their own imagination, get told what to think more and therefore are raised more easy to handle.
* It's good for distracting parents. While they are so busy panicking about the danger to their own kids and homes, they aren't looking at the real dangers just around the corner.
I'm not arguing that every story in every paper is the result of a governmental social scare, just that some are or could be created. Your children are in danger is a constant, because it works and can be tweaked up a level if necessary.
Yes, children are in danger. They are very small and vunerable. Which is why their parents should teach them things like self-defence and screaming VERY VERY loudly if anyone except specifically named people try to take them anywhere. As a child, my Mum wouldn't see me from morning to tea-time and then from tea-time until 'when it gets dark'. Was I in danger? Occasionally, but I also learned a lot of getting myself out of danger skills.
I've stopped being cynical now. I'll go back to wanting to throw up over what happened to Jessica Lunsford.
yours
Mab
xxxxx
Thanks for the great thoughts, Mab. I am mostly cynical when it comes to the news - I hate the culture of fear they create, only reporting on the sensationalist items. I meant to include a statistic I read about how many kids are molested *every day* (and yes, mostly by family), but I forgot the stat, so didn't want to guess. It's only if it's particularly horrific do we get to hear all the nasty, disgusting details. And you're right, perhaps by giving us a visual of Jessica's terrifying final moments, it is meant for us to exchange the image of her with the image of our own daughter (or son), which is exactly what happened. I understand all the fine points you made as to *why* the media would include everything, but I don't understand how we as a society tolerate the lack of respect and honor for the child and her family. It makes me so sad.
It's very difficult to walk a fine line between education and fear, as medusa stated. Plus, Rhiannon is so young, it makes it hard for her to understand. But I refuse to live in fear, and I still put her out in the fenced backyard to play, while I keep watch through a window (and our dog keeps watch from right beside her). There is only so much we, as parents, can do to protect our children. I mean, girls are nabbed from their beds as their loving guardians sleep nearby - how do we protect them from that? It's impossible.
I still believe castration would be a much better deterrant than a year or two in prison, as most molesters get.
blessings,
Jodi
Post a Comment
<< Home