thanks

I love reading your comments. They are so interesting to read. I was very shocked myself to see that they released the little girls name to the media.

I love reading your comments. They are so interesting to read. I was very shocked myself to see that they released the little girls name to the media.

it's especially suprising when a football player commits a crime because they have so much going for them in the first place, why the need to break the law? they are superior physical specimens, are good looking most the time, able to attract females (or males, relax folks), have friends, get into the hottest parties, and are educated for free.

further, it takes a lot of heart to play football, and you don't think of such a "action hero" as being a criminal. rather, the non-physical attributes that make a person become a football player, e.g. courage, tend to make "us" think of football players as more likely to rescue a cat from a tree than to knock someone off.

so, yeah, it's suprising when a football player, and to a lesser extent a basketball player, acts up. we expect more of them, and we should be able to count of them.

...actually the blogsite is far longer, and abides by the codes there too...(considered / done.)

-I'm just writing 'bout Fresno,'
and events
and behaviors
(oh, sorry, your right, it's Reedley...)

(Maybe, think of it not as long-winded,
Think of it as,
I don't know,
-information (oh wait, I got it, you alrady have the book, and this sort of thing happens around here so much that it's boring, right?

Think of it as discussing the issue with something other than blips and snips...)

lets focus,
-just for a moment...
consider this:
(I'll talk loud and fast, just to help you.)

-AN ELEVEN year old LITTLE GIRL
is GANG RAPED by a TEAM OF COLLEGE ADULTS,
-the FIFTEEN year old LITTLE GIRL
-a traumatized runaway from a local court ordered group home placement, (sole witness,)
is found all the way out near the coast,
-parent contacted 10 (TEN) HOURS AFTER SHE HAS GONE MISSING.)

-'thee' local paper publishes the KID'S NAMES,
(...so much for HIPPA, much less ETHICS, and SAFETY OF THE WITNESS WHO HAPPENS TO BE: A MINOR,)

-and we've not even gone to full trial...

-but you're right..
It doesn't deserve as much ink, analysis, and introspection,

-What we NEED to write about:
-what the kid had on her IPod,
-what she was wearing,
-what movie she thought was cool,
-what club she frequented,
hell,
-did she ride the bus?,
-ever go to the Fulton Mall?
-how much she'd pay for a pair of shoes?
-maybe in fifteen years we'll be writing about 'seeing her at a restaurant,'
(I'm sure she'll love the celebrity, The girls and their family's have to be digging it now...)

Stack every string up, end to end.
Find something more important,
Be something more important,
-on anyone's agenda.

-than that kid, five minutes before she was attacked,
during the attack,
and now.

-you're good at figuring things,
look.
I'll wait.

-ever been eleven?,
how 'bout fifteen?
-know any eleven or fifteen year olds?
-any as relatives?
-you know,
little girls?
--SISTERS, DAUGHTERS, GRANDDAUGHTERS or NIECES, NEIGHBORS that age?

Turn off your computer,
go outside of your house,
come across a young woman,
and just observe.

-listen to what she thinks,
how she feels,
maybe what her dreams and goals are.

---try to fit it into a little square box, and present it 'briefly.'
---better yet, 'start a blogsite.'
Call it something that will never sell
Like,
'Innocence,'
(oh wait, all the wrong people will visit it...)

-now (a moment more of your precious time...)

-realize that for those two kids,
(and thousands each month that we'll not hear of,)
-their lives were trashed by someone who was (probably,) given (in this case,) accolades every week, and scholarships.

Nope,
-we don't want to THINK about that.
-maybe how to prevent it?
--that would take too long.

-Like, other (adults?)
-who saw something going down,
-thought something wasn't quite right,
but
-had other stuff to do,
too busy,
in a hurry,
and frankly, couldn't care...
--Nothing happens in this world completely isolated, not even in Reedley...
(I'm sure Eleven year olds hang out with a bunch of college guys all the time....)
No adult should think twice about it.
No neighbor
No store owner
No passerby
No staff
No campus police
No cop on patrol
Nobody.
(-and I'm hearing, possibly this not the FIRST time that this has happened.)

We want brevity...
(with a dance track.)

-it's just 'little girls.'
-surprised anyone bothered to notice,
let alone write on it...

-a single panel cartoon might satisfy your drive-through needs.
-but if the Bee published that,
the place would be torn to rubble inside of a half an hour.
(-after being attacked as 'bad taste...'

-but it'd be brief enough for ya, wouldn't it.)

(three minutes to read, with editiing.)

hey romeovoid--or splinter or rv foxworthy or whatever you're calling yourself today--i was hoping your soliloquy meant you'd be leaving your long-winded posts for your own blog. consider it.

The dynamics of this situation are not new.

I'd recommend a very strong book on the issue:
"Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb," Lefkowitz (came out in early 90's I think.)

It's based upon the gang rape of a 17 year old dev. disabled young woman by a squad of Late Adolescent males in what has been heralded as one of the most perfectly formed and populated areas of the U.S., (definitely the Mid Atlantic Region.)
--That is what made the story (the crime took place in 1989 -17 years ago,) so difficult for people to understand.
-the area of Montclair, (Glenn Ridge) NJ:
-is well to do,
-a college town,
-no shortage of jobs,
-nor culture,
-is very mixed race,
-has an excellent blend of different working classes.
(even the pets have good SAT scores)
and presents no reason for any sociologist or mental health proffesional to present as cause for what these guys did.

-Further, the town itself, and surrounding community actually, (in surrounding articles and in subsequent days,
was more on the side of denying, defending, and then way downplaying the behaviors.
- Best care really went out to the young men who committed the gang rape, (with an additional 30 more who wanted to commit similar acts the following day,)
-with a rather quiet response,
-and little outcry that a dev. disabled woman was taken advantage of, (this area of the state is also one of the most advanced in the mental health corridor.)

-All this instead of being incensed at their behaviors, and demanding change.
(If memory serves correct, a majority of them were also lettered and on a team at their school.)

-The story still violently upsets me, (having worked in the mental health field, spec. w/ dev. disabled, and dev. disabled young women as a focus for years.)

I think it helps to understand that a group (or gang) mentality, ---even in an area where the sky is the limit, the greatest city in world is only a three dollar and 20 minute train ride away,
-and best education, social grooming, and religious involvement, has been afforded (for generations.)

-People who so closely identify themselves by a group, -be it for their actions, or their image,
-often dissolve in their own character and moral uprightness.
-I've seen it happen in groups as small as two (couples.)
My buddies and I, in college, would remark at how the Frat. guys were all pretty cool as individuals, -until they got together.
(But we had our own heightened behaviors that we'd never dream when standing by ourself, either.)

There have been stories of soldiers raping locals.
-stories and movies of blue collar workers raping locals.
-jocks doing same.
-Frats doing same
-Corp types deliberately and methodically plotting the demise of a deaf woman, ('because of what all women do to men') film: 'In the Company of Men.'
-even at a social gathering a couple of weeks ago, actually heard a few guys discussing 'paying some bum (homeless) twenty bucks to check out' a very dangerous location, (-one of the guys 'didn't want to risk his dog as a forerunner.) That this group was involved with social concerns was a little disturbing.

Fresno is a town of groups (gangs.)
It's not just the bangers who are leaving their marble filled socks in the alley behind my house, it's the gang of athletes, the gang of bikers, the gang of workers, the gang of professionals, the gang of police, the gang of businessmen, gang of art lovers or musicians...
-Substitute 'gang' with family, identity, cast, caste, group, team, congregation, shift,
-and you have the same group,
-oft times, determined by purely their known activities as being good or bad. (Fair Enough.)
-and they define their own ethos, and determine their own altruism.

But, the deeper concern,
-that we seem to be caring less about, is WHY we have this need, (and why it so often brings out the degenerate and deviant.)
-Why do we need to enjoy positive events, to justify our goals, desires, preserve safety, experiment with alternative thought and behavior, find catharsis, or gather in stadiums to scream for teams or study men's religious issues, (Promise Keepers,)

-or to do hellish things to others,
(usually some poor soul who wandered from their tribe, doesn't have one, and desperately wants to belong.)

We 'talk' individuality,
but then need groups to verify and authenticate it,

I'd be interested in a study,
-who of this group, that did this demonic thing to this little girl, when analyzed, actually had deviant and sadistic tendencies.
--Who was the ringleader, what defines follower?
--What if none of them were different from each other, and all had unremarkable studies?

--what if academic and far away terms, like 'zeitgeist,''group think,''pheramone overload,' 'roid rage,' wast not some distant, rarely found and easily explained behavior created in a lab, torture chamber, and medievel orphanage,

-what if it's just the dark side of normal, when people are gathered, and presented an opportunity?
(I remember when 'restraint' was a personal responsibility, not the things they put you in to keep from destroying yourself or someone else...)

I think Milgram's 37 answered this long ago...
(sadly, I doubt most folks even know what that was, -past a PeterGabriel song.)

It's significant within the scope of the Valley and its past problems with athletes, for sure. We have a long history of athletes behaving badly in this town, dating back all the foolishness in the Tark days to Pettis' trial.

I have been an athlete all my life. It is important to remember that as an athlete, you represent, at all times, the institution who allows you that avenue to exist. Whether it is football, soccer, basketball, or even golf, you are not exempt from a common standard of morals and character, rather you are held to a level far higher because you are an athlete. The importance of revealing that they are connected through a common sport can signify flaws within a particular department that has a certain amount of oversight of their athletes, and will force that department to look more closely at their athletes social behaviors outside of their 'regular season' and keep in check unacceptable behavior. Or, it could just be that stories of aggressive football players and their deviant behavior off the field sells more papers and ads than do the expected run-of-the-mill local criminal. You decide by however you print the story, true?