…raining on your morality parade

It’s a watershed moment in America.  A woman who was suspected of murdering her daughter, dumping her in a field and living the high life for 31 days before notifying authorities (excuse:  missing child) was rendered not guilty by a jury of her peers.  The peanut gallery gasps in horror at this miscarriage of justice for the slain toddler.  News, being news in the United States, can only focus on one story per day and this is it.

The jury is a collection of fools.  The prosecution was robbed.  The toddler’s memory was tarnished.  The peanuts take to the street, marching in lock-step tooting their horns and waving the “It’s unfair” flag while singing songs about the terrible, murdering mother.  All while overlooking some significant facts:

  • It is the responsibility of the prosecution to prove guilt.  Clearly, from the jury’s perspective, it did not.
  • Children are abused on a daily basis.

I understand the concept of cause célèbre.  We all have our pets we choose to support.  But let me ask the peanuts in the parade some critical questions:

  • Where is your outrage when it comes to other children being abused, beaten and slain?
  • Are you fully aware of the broad reach of child abuse?
  • Aside from Twattering and Fecesbooking, what are you doing about it?

Now…I’m certainly not denying the right to one’s opinion.  What I am trying to do is offer a different side to the tale.  It’s very easy to lash out at a monster who would harm his/her child when it’s the dominating story in the daily news.  It’s very easy to express outrage. That said, if you’re so horrified by child abuse, what are you doing in your community to stop it?

No one is omnipotent.  Dollars to donuts, abuse goes on behind closed doors and the general public is never even aware of it transpiring. That does not change the fact that it does happen.  A parent doesn’t have to murder a child to be a monster.  A parent doesn’t have to get caught to be guilty of this crime.

The sad fact of the matter is that a variation of Casey Anthony lives on every block in every neighborhood in every state/country. The sad fact of the matter is that most of us are blind to it.  Rather than taking the easy way out and joining groups supporting the non-purchase of any tell-all book, why not get involved in your communities and schools and help a child in need?  Surely that is a far better investment of time and energy, yes?

6 thoughts on “…raining on your morality parade

  1. :sigh:

    As individuals people are generally nice and kind and intelligent. As a group they are rather stupid. Bad (and good) things happen every single day, but no one gives a shit because most them aren’t being talked about by Fox News pundits or celebrities. The hysterical reaction to this incident mirrors the huge public reaction that always occurs after the death of a celebrity, and the shock and the horror when a politician gets caught with his pants down. For some reason what these people do is much more important to us than what non-famous people do. Our standards of behavior and decorum for these people are much higher than for everyone else including ourselves.

  2. I have grown weary of the whole “when it’s a white girl…” and “blame the media” stuff, too.

    I appreciate how horrifying this particular case is. I appreciate the outrage. What I cannot appreciate is knowing that come tomorrow, everyone will go back to their daily lives of pretending all is well in the world when it’s clearly not.

    It doesn’t take much to make a difference (for the better) in the lives of children. There were a handful of teachers in my school who were really there for me and thus kept me going. Imagine if they were too busy to notice a troubled girl because of ridiculous distractions such as this. 😕

    Alas, it’s always easier to be an armchair quarterback, innit?

  3. Although I share the general sentiment that she’s probably guilty, this is what the justice system was designed to do- provide a jury with the evidence and let them decide if the state has made their case or not. If the state can’t make a compelling case the accused goes free, regardless of public sentiment. To paraphrase Billy Bragg, it’s not a court of justice, it’s a court of law. I guess I’m one of those bleeding hearts that would rather see 100 guilty people go free rather than convict an innocent one.

    And really, all the faux outrage over Casey Anthony is only because it’s the lurid story du jour. Never mind our collapsing economy or the three (some say four) endless wars we’re fighting, some woman in Florida may have killed her kid! If Anthony Weiner had held out another week or two, everybody would have forgotten about his little goof and he’d have continued on with his political career. Next week the talking heads will have found something else for people to get all self-righteous over, and Casey Anthony will begin her long slide into obscurity.

    It’s times like this I wish I believed in god, because it’s clear that whoever was involved in murdering Caylee Anthony won’t see justice in this world.

  4. This has been a bit weird for me. I am usually a bit of a news junkie, so even though I shun murder stories and am never one to follow all the details and such, I have usually at least known what was in the press. This time around however, just due to circumstance, I haven’t been following at all and knew nothing of it until the outrage over the verdict.
    Frankly, I kinda like it that way. I have laughed at my friends who have gone on news diets. However I’d rather go about doing my bit to better the world and not be distracted by these monstrosities. I know I can’t stick my head in the sand completely, but there must be a balance somewhere. Maybe I’ll only watch the super big OJ Simpson type trials.
    You make an excellent point Dock about the shit du jour. We let it steer us too much, and it is most often put out by people who need to put something on their channels to make you their news. Bullshit hawked, the people gawked, and money talked.

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