I read the news today, oh boy . . .

Sometimes, more likely, most times, I am my own worst enemy. I was reading more news about the fallout from Steubenville and CNN when I decided to click through on some links. The road I went down was not yellow-brick or rainbow-hued or lined with daisies. It was dark and dirty and left me feeling literally sick to my stomach.

This is what I have deduced from just a quick perusal:

• Girls/women who are raped are fair game for name-callers, haters, and anyone else interested in further harming them emotionally thanks to easy access to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• Children are not safe anywhere, not in school, not in church, not in their counselors’ offices, not even in the dental chair.
• Our society has become emotionally numb to this news because it is so damned pervasive.
• I also read a blurb about this phenomenon that occurs mostly with Japanese male youth in which they decided never to leave their bedrooms. I can truly appreciate this and wonder why it is not more widespread.
• It’s kind of hard to decide which social travesty is breaking my heart more these days: the ways in which rape is treated so cavalierly, especially among our youth, or the prevalence of pervs in every single facet of our society.

• In case you think that I’m overreacting, feast your eyes on the following:
  • In Ohio: Two teenage girls were arrested and accused of using social media to threaten the young victim in the Steubenville Rape Case.
  • In Indiana: A woman is charged with trying to sell her one-year-old daughter for child porn.
  • In Florida: A man has been charged with using his neighbor’s wi-fi to download child pornography.
  • In Pennsylvania: A man admits to paying a 10-year-old neighbor for sex.
  • In Iowa: A 48-year-old male daycare provider has been accused of sexually abusing a number of children from as young as four-years-old.
  • In California: A 14-year-old boy has been charged with molesting two children who attended the day school run by the boy’s mother.
  • In California: A dental hygienist has been accused of sexually molesting a teenaged girl; there may be more victims who have yet to be identified.
  • In New York: A rabbi has been found guilty on 59 counts of child sex abuse.
  • In California: A former teacher is facing allegations of molesting 12 children; principal had been warned about questionable behavior three years prior.
  • In Arkansas: A church volunteer who was a member of the youth ministry has been charged with possession of child pornography.

   

No more. I had to stop myself. This is precisely why I stopped watching the news on television and also why I limit how much and what I read on the interwebs. I’m not made of strong enough stuff for this.

More later.

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