Momnesia

Little Girl Loved

The blogosphere - including the atrocious comments section of our local daily paper - has been ablaze lately with opinions about the 11-year-old Texas girl who was gang-raped in an abandoned trailer by 18 men and boys.

It hurt me to hear this story. I know plenty of 11-year-olds, and I can't imagine the pain and humiliation - not to mention disease and pregnancy fears - she must be enduring. I was an 11-year-old girl, and sexuality was not a presence in my mind, or the minds of my other 5th grade classmates.

Most of the dialogue - if you can call it that - has focused on where we should lay the blame. Parents, perpetrators and the victim all trade places at the top of that hierarchy. Race has, hatefully, played a central role in the discussion.

But one man - one gentleman, I should say - has posted a thoughtful response on the blog My Brown Baby. Author Nick Chiles, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, does not focus on blame. Instead, he looks towards the future - because he allows the young victim to have one - and offers her a guideline to choosing her relationships in the future. Please read it here - and say a silent prayer of thanks that there are such men in the world.