I’m in shock. Every now and then I am confronted with the realization about the state of our world. This is one of those instances.

Read the article. I did and I was appalled.

This author clearly insinuates in several parts that the eleven year-old girl was “asking for it.” He includes facts about how she supposedly dressed provocatively and hung around with the wrong crowd. I don’t know about you, but at eleven, it’s pretty difficult to dress “provocatively” considering there is quite little to show off. Among several things that bother me, part of this attitude particularly concerns me, which I will discuss in a minute.

One thing that really turned my stomach was the people he chose to quote - both the one about the boys living with it for the rest of their lives and the one questioning the girl’s mother and her parenting style. First of all, the EIGHTEEN boys involved with gang raping an eleven year old DESERVE to live with this for the rest of their lives. I hope it keeps them up and night and eats away at their souls. Yes, their souls. Second, “where was her mother”? Excuse me? Where was her mother? Where were the EIGHTEEN mothers of the boys who raped her?

The entire attitude of this writer is that she essentially asked for it and he made the boys look like victims of a bad situation. These weren’t hardened criminals - the majority of them were in middle and high school, on the basketball team for godsake. I am led to believe then that they were raised to treat women this way - this is the attitude of their community. I think men in general should be offended by the attitude of the author as he is more or less straightforwardly saying that “boys will be boys,” that the girl shouldn’t have been allowed to troll around, like he claims that she was, and she should have known better what was at risk. He essentially saying that all males will rape women, it’s in their nature and everyone knows that - boys will be boys? No, pigs will be pigs and calling this author a pig would be a compliment I don’t feel he deserves.

Finally, the fact that he wrote this story from the slant of “she was asking for it” makes me think. That kind of response is classic of child molesters who are trying to defend themselves, “she was dressed provocatively,” “she was asking for it,” and “she wanted it.” And yet, these thinly veiled phrases are being espoused by this author? Perhaps we should take a closer look at Mr. James C. McKinley Jr. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some painfully small skeletons in his closet.