The story of the 15-year old Richmond High School raped and assaulted for two and a half hours behind her school gym – at homecoming! – by multiple assailants while dozens more looked on and did nothing causes the mind to reel in shock and dismay.
Who could do such a thing? How could this happen?
Is our slide into “if it feels good, do it” moral relativism complete?
From their early adolescence they are exposed to violent video games, pervasive sexuality in movies, television, music. The sense that everyone really is doing it. Their early guardians are parents who sigh and forgo making the difficult decisions to rebuke, punish, deny. Because we’re all just too busy what with the two jobs and Judge Judy comes on at five.
By the time they are in their formative years, the guardians have given way to the inmates: Teens these days have multiple means of inter-communication that parents cannot easily penetrate, monitor or disable. This allows them secret havens of race-you-to-the-bottom voyeurism and exhibitionism. Social media sites, cell phones, IMS chat, SMS text – these are social channels existing entirely outside any mature moral framework, many of them lack any sense of appropriate boundaries. It is a kind of co-educational “lord of the flies” environment existing not on some remote island but beneath our very noses, and just beyond our grasp.
The boomer generation passed on to their successors the material ease their depression-era deprived parents strove for without really working at it themselves, without bothering to transmit the moral foundation they imparted upon us. The truth that good things come not of right nor entitlement but from hard, useful work. We are increasingly unable to distinguish right from wrong ourselves and so decline to judge it in others. By refusing to judge, we have lost the power to shame. In refusing to shame we have permitted, even celebrated everything that was once shameful. We have killed god and put nothing in his place.
I fear that having substituted the the state for the family and Hollywood for the church we have raised a generation so detached from what used to be known as our collective moral bearings that they no longer feel compassion, revulsion, empathy. A generation that can stand around and take pictures as a 15-year old child is brutally assaulted.
I secretly fear that, out of the goodness of our hearts, we have bred a nest of vipers who wait only to nurse at our bosoms.
You may be right, Lex, but I think Richmond is a cesspool whose reflection is not representative.
I’m an optimistic – I see a lot to admire in young Americans, our sons and daughters in their teens and early twenties.
While we are a fractured generation at war with itself, and obsessed with self, they are not. They will have to pick up the pieces of our mess and in so doing reconnect with core values. Or not. But I have faith in them. That said, I think their path will be much darker than ours. And the briars are getting thicker as we speak.
Pretty horrific story, all round.
At the bottom line I tend to think the problem is ineffectual parenting. No kid comes out of the womb a genius with a firmly established moral framework. The world of kids *is* like the Lord of the Flies; in my youth, in an affluent suburb, kids used to beat the hell out of each other at hockey day camps, and in the change room at the local pool, in the hallways of the high school, basically anywhere an adult was absent for longer than 3 minutes.
Only a better adult example can teach them how to temper raw stupidity and inexperience into something like civilised behaviour. But many parents eschew specific moral teaching (religious or otherwise) as too preachy, and assume instead that it is a given. Absorbed by osmosis. Perhaps they find out otherwise when the cops come knocking.
And every generation since 1970 or so has a place that exists within but just below the radar of the adult world; in my day it was dial-up BBS systems.
Hang. Them. All.
Unbelievable – and sadly, no charges for the damn non-interfering witnesses, who are, in their way, as bad as the perpetrators.
I would quibble about the “multiple channels of communication” being at fault: their more insalubrious uses might be symptomatic, but the rot you speak of would exist whether or not the rotten could Facebook its expression.
Blame Hollywood, perhaps, but that’s a circular argument: if it’s being produced, it’s only because a market exists for it.
In this situation, blame, maybe, not just desensitization to observed horror, but a sort of trained passivity, brought on by untold hundreds of hours of screen-time.
Finally, and certainly, blame a lack of personal honour and responsibility for both yourself, and others in need: no person worthy of the name human should witness such a thing without giving aid in some way. Physically intervening if possessing the strength, or calling for help if not, male or female.
I can’t refute your statements about our culture and what has become “the norm” in our society. I feel that a certain amount of this is that the Hippies raised their kids who passed along their “do what you want” culture to the generation who are doing these heinous crimes. Add in the crap that the kids are getting from MTV and other media and you see where it is leading.
I see the crap everyday where celebrities are jailed and it is seen as some kind of right-of-passage. The kids celebrate prison/gang culture and you wonder why this SHITE happens? Add in the availability of drugs/guns in the hands of idiots who don’t care where they shoot who who gets hurt when they shoot it out on the street and you wind up with incidents like this.
I keep my kids close and we don’t allow the cell phones/internet chat to be used in their rooms. I cannot stop all the crap but I can decide what goes on in my home and who or what influences my kids….
I wish that more people listened to Bill Cosby who told a group of parents that ” Your dirty laundry gets aired out at 2 p.m. each day when the kids get out of school” –
It is up to the parents to take charge of their kids and know where they are and what they are doing.
Here are some quotes from Bill Cosby below:
“Walk with the dirty laundry one day. Walk through high school hallways and listen to the dirty laundry talk. MF! F! N! And, of course, that famous university, FU! All these words are spoken with the same ease as ‘pass the salt.’”
“Walk with the dirty laundry outside the high school and onto the sidewalk. Don’t walk fast. In fact, just stand across the street and listento the language. Get your pad and pencil and jot down what you hear. Count the number of times various expressions of profanity are used. When you get
tired of keeping track, just stop and make up a number. Oh, yes. And notice the attitude, the violence, the grabbing of young ladies. Can you hear them calling each other names or does the Boom Box drown out their voices? If you
can’t hear them, use your eyes. What is the relationship between male and female, male and male, female and female? Is there anger there? Do you see it?”
A child at an age capable of using such technology or capable of such crimes has already been psychologically programmed to exhibit certain characteristics and behavior. The first years of a child’s life have far more to do with the end character of that person than any video game, movie or TV show. If a young person viewing such programs or playing such games can’t distinguish the difference between produced media and reality, along with the appropriate right/wrong interpretations that come along with them, then it is simply a parenting failure. If a child is young enough to be dramatically influenced by such programming and media, then it again is a parenting failure.
Video games and media are not to blame. Murder rates have always been high, rapes have always been high, but today in many cases are declining. On the other end of the spectrum, college attendance is on the rise and high school graduation rates are on the rise.
As for the ’standing and watching’ phenomena, please refer to the large ABC series “What Would You Do” which puts adults in similar situations as these students. You will apparently be surprised that it is not just young people who will stand idly by while wrong doings take place.
“By refusing to judge, we have lost the power to shame.” is one of the key elements IMO.
This type of event happens across the country all the time. Details vary, but the substance is the same.
How many of our political leaders, or cultural icons, are removed from their position of influence when they commit morally/ethically reprehensible acts? Isolated situation, situational ethics, blah, blah, blah.
I am for bringing back the stocks, tarring & feathering, or in the most egregious cases, removing the person from society.
There were a couple of men reputed to have been talking with each other after the Bolsheviks had won. One asked why it happened. the other said “we have forgotten God.” As Reagan put it so well, “when we are no longer a nation under God, we will be a nation gone under.”
Elections follow the morality of the voters. We had a choice between the sorry and sorrier. Neither had any use for the Christian Right, the traditionalists, the constitutionalists. We got the worst possible choice between the two.
This nation no longer listens to God, and the end will be the same as that of Israel when they quit listening to God. They got the Assyrians, The Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians and then the Romans, who destroyed them as a state because they would not listen to God. What makes people think we will be any different.
When i heard this story yesterday it put me in a bad mood for the entire day. I have to agree with David on this one.
There comes a point when we can no longer treat people like human beings and instead should treat them as the evil monsters they have become. Gather every one of the people directly involved (that includes those who recorded it) and execute them publicly. Gather everyone else who witnessed and did nothing and give them a public and thorough beating to teach them what it’s like.
I know this seems bloodthirsty, but damn it i’m pissed.
It’s directly because there are no real consequences for bad behavior these days that it just keeps getting worse and worse.
A needed courageous and profound comment Lex. The cultural moral freefall into Gemomorah is in full grunt. I grieve for my grandchildren as they will reach adulthood in a very dark world.
Non-men in the making. Non-women in the dregs of compounded bad judgments.
Who teaches young men to prey on stupid girls who are imprudent in their judgment? Why would they feel entitled to take advantage of her?
However, we have always had such people, but never the hi-tech disadvantage of turning bystanders into filmmakers. They are the even more disgusting of the lot.
It isn’t possible for people who loath themselves, who feel worthless, to respect others. Under all the bravado many of these youth know what they really are.
Long before the empowerment by techology, we age-segregate children for “socialization” purposes. Getting children accustomed to being herded like shee until one of them becomes angry enough to become violent does not seem like a positive to me. Children need to have adults of good character to emulate. Learning ow to behave from other children, all within a very narrow age of a few months, is definitely a “Lord of the Flies” situation. It can’t be other than that.
The only winning move is to keep your kids out of the system. I’m becoming more convinced of that now that I work for a public school system.
How do I square the fact that I totally associate myself with Lex’s commentary and yet say Flat has a point? I guess by saying that as a general overview/gloss Lex is correct, but Flats’ points are not insignificant. Two “vignettes” in support of Flat’s view: (1) Local neighborhood bar at which I imbibe just opposite the Tulane campus. A young male honors student hippy type with long hair and black painted fingernails–yet a big supporter of the military and basically conservative in outlook who congratulates me on my service to the country. (2) Circa 1998 late night at 24 hr bar on St. Charles getting a Hot Pastrami at 2:30am. Get into debate/argument w. 3 grunge-dressed 20-something feministas.over, well, our respective lifestyles. Increasingly taking more extreme positions the more outraged they became over my milder proclamations; they finally depart, er stalked off, calling me a Nazi. (What, you thought it would end otherwise?) All along, out of the corner of my eye a long, stringy-haired guy of about the same age with 3-day stubble, in black jeans, motorcycle boots, a white t-shirt and wearing a grunge-like duster had been leaning against the wall taking our little “scene” all in. At the end, he spoke up saying: “You know, don’t mean to be rude, but I couldn’t help listening to the whole thing.” “I noticed,” I replied. He continued: “You were egging them on on purpose, weren’t you? You were really enjoying driving them crazy weren’t you?” Upon allowing that his powers of observation were correct, he replied: “Just want you to know I think they were total air-heads–I agree with EVERYTHING YOU SAID!” LOL!!
Take away moral? The old “Never judge a book by its cover!” bit. The younger generation is harder to generalize about than in my day as standards of dress and comportment are all over the lot compared to the paleo days of the 50s and early 60s (pre Beetles and drugs) when I grew up and it was far, far easier to spot/sort out societies’ rotten apples–apples which are seemingly far more plentiful now–and for all the reasons Lex spotlights.
Sooo? Lex, et al are basically on tgt, but as Flat points out, there ARE bright spots. I guess the question is: are there enough of them to make a difference?
I see it in the manner of dress, the speech, the tattoos. All of it a celebration of the most vile and despicable parts of our society. Societal role models for the younger generation, as a whole, seem to spawn from the ‘hood, including professional athletes whose mannerisms so many times emulate the criminal.
Then there are the parents who, having abdicated their roles as mentor and model, cry out for mercy when the offspring commit foul deeds, rather than stand for the justice meted out afterward. In my youth, ‘You broke it. You bought it.’ was applied in all of ways.
Not to highlight our host, so much, but I’m grateful for the inclusion into the happy journey of the week past. I would that there were more such stories of the day. Let us not lose hope altogether.
Mongo/
The point you make here is well echoed by the British Physician who writes as Theodore Dalrymple in his book: “Life at the Bottom: The world-view that Makes the Underclass” in which he makes as his central point that, unlike in previous times whem middle-class values “trickled-down” to “civilize” the under-class; today under-class values as you point out are wafting up to permeate the middle class–aided and abetted by the upper-class who seize on under-class traits as “tres-chic” and “genuine” expressions of “authenticity,” and hold out such things as representing an upper-class life-style (think “heroine chic” in the ad world) inducements for the middle-class–all the while denigrating middle-class values as square/”un-hip”, racist, and retrograde ones only mindless fools abide by.
A sad state of affairs indeed.
BTW, this was Richmond, CA not VA. And I agree with the above David and Mark, “Hang them all”. I go along with the idea that if you don’t like our society and you want to erode it at the edges with this kind of behavior, then we should simply put you down. All of them. And I am talking about burning them alive on a stake too.
Also, I am reminded about a debate I had last year in the run up to the election why I would not support a Democrat. One of the many items I passed on was my belief that the Democrat party was the ‘Godless’ party, a party without morals. Because of this I would not vote for one so inclined as to attack the Pledge of Allegiance because of the word ‘God’ or to kill Christmas by suing it to death. And these attacks have simply gotten worse over the years as more and more Democrats have taken over the lower level elected posts, school boards, township boards, county boards and state legislatures.
We are doomed unless the mass of humanity in America wakes up and says NO MORE!!
BT: Jimmy T sends.
We had a similar disussion the other day on another board I frequent-sad as it is, there’s a point of no return beyond which its impossible to teach empathy, compassion, respect to a child. They’re just broken, and thn its a question of how many other people they’ll break as they careem through life. And when the broken people are “raising” children of their own…even worse.
The story prompting the other discussion was a recent case where the mom & aunt took off, leaving a 2 & 3 year old home alone, who then were burned up in a fire. The town’s in a uproar-as the local paper put it, “The children’s aunt, Marilyn Wilson, who left the house with the mother, said she had no regrets about leaving the children home alone, “No, I really don’t because if they had been there by themselves, I don’t know if the boys set the house on fire or somebody threw something in there to set it on fire. I really need to get in there to see if my purse burned up. I had my Food Stamp Card and everything in there.”
Here’s a link: http://www.myfoxmaine.com/dpp/news/dpgo_101909_House_Fire_Sends_Two_Kids_to_Hospital_4122306
I really don’t know practically what you can do with these people. Aside from the immediate bloody thoughts. I know what I would want to do with them and its in keeping with Jimmy T.’s suggestions.
I agree with everything Lex said. However, I can argue that technology, social networking, texting, cell phones, et al is not necessarily at the root or even in the middle of this.
When I was 14 (1977), 2 boys in my class tried to rape me – in front of my classmates. All of whom cheered the boys on, watching and laughing. They only stopped because one of the witnesses shouted that a teacher was coming. The boys got far enough for me to be very scared; and while they weren’t able to finish what they started, they stated their intent quite clearly to me. I have no doubt that if a teacher hadn’t come thru things may have ended quite differently for me.
1977 – long before the technology we speak of. Long before video games of any kind. Long before Hollywood replaced anything. At at time when parents were, for the most part, still deeply involved in the lives of their children; where most families had one working parent and one only.
My point being that sometimes – kids are bad no matter where they come from or how they are raised. We can only blame these outside influences so far – eventually it comes down to a kid knowing that what they are doing is wrong and having the ability to resist temptation. Inability to do that can only be taught to a certain point.
Some kids are just bad all the way inside. Time, technology and parental involvement won’t ever change that.
I decided about ten years ago that ‘political correctness’ and ‘multiculturalism’ which our schools are so anxious to teach our children are a product of intellectual laziness and a refusal to make difficult judgments. And appalling incidents like this are the result. When you are not taught, at a fairly young, impressionable age, that this is cruel behavior that will stain your soul forever, you ‘go along to get along’ and you abdicate your own sovereignty over yourself.
This is not a new group of reactions. I can remember when I was very young, some of my friends’ mothers used the phrase “Don’t do that. Mother is not angry, but she is terribly terribly hurt.” My parents weren’t buying into that, and “Mother is not hurt, she’s just terribly terribly angry” became a family watchword. And I got paddled a fair amount, although not every day, as the boy down the block claimed. But it works, no matter how tiresome it is for the parents.
Look at how well I turned out, hmmm?
Marianne
I was by coincidence re-reading Bill Whittle’s essay “Tribes” just yesterday.
It strikes me that when sheepdogs are routinely denigrated in their society, the wolves have free rein.
Yeah, this pisses me off too.
Hangin’s too good. I say we give the perps a good public caning/beating a la Singapore or the Saudis. The folks who thought it fun to stand around and watch the show, should bring back the public stocks that force them to suffer a day of humiliation and shame for their inaction.
Technology and movies aren’t the culprits. Lack of proper (or any) parenting, a severe shortage of accountability and the “shame” of being a snitch are the real causes of this problem. Sounds like a repeat of the Chicago honor-student murder.
Perhaps we are creating more of these types but as Kris relates, they’ve always been with us. Both the despicable ones who perpetrate these acts and the weak, dishonorable ones who watch or ignore without seeking help. I once knew a young woman who related her own public rape by two teenagers with others watching. She was 11 at the time. It was about 26 years ago now. So these evils have always been with us. I suppose we should secretly fear that the evil is growing and there are so few heros amongst the young.
On the other hand, someone heard the scum who saw this crime talking and sought help for the girl, so there is at least one with honor in that crowd.
Attempted rape, rape, gang rape, etc. is hardly a new phenomenon. As reprehensible as it is, it has been going on since man first walked on this planet.
At least the perpetrators in this instance may be prosecuted. Jamie Leigh Jones is not so lucky. She was drugged and gang-raped by seven U.S contractors and held captive by two KBR guards in a shipping container! But these criminals are protected, and she can’t take them to court.
What you mean “we”? Me and mine watch our own and tend to their moral education.
We teach them right from wrong and how to recognize danger. We teach them when to fight and when to walk away. And we teach them how.
And we shepherd them. Unceasingly. There is no safe place, John Connor.
Eye the newborn calf in our herd and you deal with the mature bull(s). Now. Cape buffalo got nothing on us. And the young hyenas can smell it.
Every night we pray: God bless and protect us all. Every one. Because nobody bats a thousand.
Gray tribe. House Bluewater. Caveat Illegitimi (Let the bastards beware).
With a dark age coming on, it’s the only way to go. mowepypfi
Once again, I find my sentiments in perfect alignment with Mongo and Marianne, as well as Grampa Bluewater.
It does not take a village to raise a child; it “requires” loving, caring and involved parents! A good bath will clean them up for a day but a caring parent will see to it that they’re in good shape every day. The reality of throw-away kids can be reduced if not averted with the love of a good mother and father who are participating in the child’s life. (An account of such involvment and love can be seen in this past week’s cross-country by none other than our host. There’s an example for a child to aim for!)
I agree with Marianne that “tough love” is required and I positively know that Grampa Blue is right when he turns to prayer. Mongo holds out the hope of success… yes, I buy into all three!
“In refusing to shame we have permitted, even celebrated everything that was once shameful.”
This applies at all levels of society. Two examples come to mind: One I remember reading was about a Wall Street Brokerage House head in the 1920s or 30s who was convicted of insider trading. He was banished from the industry but also suffered the stigma of his peers as not being worth their respect. He was shunned, shamed and basically hoarded out of town. Ended up broke and died lonely. (I may be embellishing but that is the gist of what I read as a true story – perhaps someone here knows more) Contract with today’s treatment of Wall Street malfeasance – its the 8 figure severance package and see back in place in a few years…
Second is Micheal Vick – I know he did his time, but really when is behavior so disgusting that you really don’t deserve another chance to showcase your talents? When does an organization have enough moral outrage to say, “not for my team, not in my league, not now, not ever…”.
Shame isn’t PC – somehow judging is “judged” as being something no one has the moral authority to do. So if we can’t judge right and wrong because we all suffer from original sin then how long before we just sink to the level of animals in the jungle. In Richmond, CA I think we have our answer.
Moral relativism has been eroding our value system for some time and IMO is breaking down many families. Yes, there are terrific young men and women out there with a strong sense of purpose but I wonder if sleazy television/ movies/ music have dulled the consciences of many others. Schools no longer teach right from wrong—only tolerance leaving many young people without a moral compass. In a study: “The Criminal Personality ” Samenow and Yochelson rebutted conventional wisdom that crime was caused by environment i.e. poverty and racism. They concluded it was caused by individuals making wrong moral choices.
Recently, we’ve witnessed family-values politicians Sanford, Ensign, and Duvall disgraced because of extramarital affairs. Yet, as distressing as these moral failures are, they shouldn’t be surprising. One statistic indicates only 34 percent of individuals believe in absolute moral truth. Ergo, morality is personal, subjective, and utilitarian. Sort of a smorgasbord of beleiefs. Choose what you want. If it works , great. And if that doesn’t work, there’s always Prozac. With only our felt needs to guide us, who’s to argue?
I was born in Richmond, CA. I can certify that it was a rough town as far back as the 1960s (my Mom and Dad could certify that as far back as the 1940s).
However, it REALLY started to turn South in the late 60s and 70s with the bullshit social-engineering programs of the left.
This incident is symbolic of the whole underclass culture that has grown-up with the support and encouragement of the left-wing.
Nothing can cure this other than a whole lot of bullets. Preferably sooner than later.
I don’t know. I’m thinking it’s human nature. Something in all of us. Who wants to be the first and maybe the only one to “step in”? We’ve all heard all the excuses.
Look at the rucus over our being in Iraq. The world watched Sadam brutalize his people. Humm, even gas bunch. For a long time too.
Oh, and the Taliban in Afganistan with beheadings, stonings, kidnapings etc.
And how long have suicide bombers been able to ply their trade targeting the innocent in buses and sidewalk restaurants?
Response? “Not our fight” or “I support the troops but not the war”.
Young people are no longer taught that injustice is “our” fight. It’s the only fight.
Because, like the song says, “Whatcha gonna do when they come for you bad boy?”
WTF.
Yeah, social networking isn’t the cause. This happened in the Liberal Epicenter of the country… nice work Califorina… real nice…
And people wonder why I carry whenever legal… Because there is no telling when something bad could happen and I’m not counting on being ‘protected’ by the police…
Yeah, social networking isn’t the cause. This happened in the Liberal Epicenter of the country… nice work Califorina… real nice…
And people wonder why I carry whenever legal… Because there is no telling when something bad could happen and I’m not counting on being ‘protected’ by the police…
Just because CA is burning doesn’t mean the rest of the country is. Some people still take pride in raising their children correctly, as well as protecting them from harm.
Lex, I’m not normally one to blow smoke but this is one of the best posts I’ve seen on the internet. Thanks for continuing to provide this forum and regularly posting your insights. (I know, the tip jar’s always open)
I think you hit the nail on the head with the line of substituting the state for the family (an idea that extends as far back as Plato’s Republic). I don’t know the specifics of those involved in this instance, but if I was a betting man I would bet that many, most, if not all of them came from broken homes. Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted the breakdown of poor families would be the result of welfare, which punished nuclear families in relation to “rewarding” single mother families and out of wedlock childbirth. Our original good natured intent to help the worst sufferers of fate has been transmogrified by the far too often ignored law of unintended consequences into subsidizing the corrosion of the basic moral unit that has carried on civilization since Ur, the two parent mother-father based family.
Will agree, when such persons are concentrated geographically: I hesitate to hold up “the ghetto” as an example, as the issue here is economic and social, rather than racial; however, the British “chav” problem, and their issues with lower-income housing estates seems a good comparison.
Mixed in with the rest of society, or in smaller numbers, as in rural communities, the kids have a chance to experience “normal” life outside the home, even if that home is a disaster. Working with cadets, this sort of person may flourish if given something to identify with, even as late as twelve years of age. Speaking coldly, as far as pros, most are already self-reliant, used to finding their own solutions, and mentally resilient: on the con side, there’s often all kinds of mental baggage to be handled, with varying degrees of success. Still, far easier to work with than a damn suburban bubble-child, used to being ferried from event to event, and otherwise living in front of a screen.
Would be interesting to know the backgrounds of the crowd and the perps… almost no point speculating on social causes without that info.
Definitely some interesting points. I think civilization rests precariously on a knife’s edge between an actually somewhat passive/docile hard work ethic and ability to get along in society even at the cost of letting some slights against one’s honor go leading to the fruits of a comfortable and peaceful existence, and between the foundation stone of rough men standing ready to do violence to anyone who threatens that peace. The skills and attitudes that make you good at the one tend to make you bad at the other and it is a difficult balancing act. I personally believe you on the point that it is better to have a kid from a rough neighborhood as a recruit than a sheltered one. But the whole thing somewhat reminds me of a quote I like from Thucydides:
A nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its laws made by cowards and its wars fought by fools
As a libertarian, generally, the draft is something I’m pre-disposed to be against unless it be completely necessary, but at times I fear we are becoming just such a nation as Thucydides warned against. Jefferson wanted military service to be a pre-requisite for a college degree IIRC but I might be wrong. Either way I’m now beginning to believe the idea has some merit.
On the same notion as society resting on the knife’s edge at all times is Mark Steyn’s take on the “hovering roof” philosophy of the left. That is if you remove all pillars of our civilization like the sanctity of the nuclear family, Judeo-Christian moral values, constitutionally restrained government that may not “help” when it has the power to do so because it will then have the power and license to do whatever else the imperfect whims of its all too human leaders want it to do, etc. then the roof of our freedom and prosperity will just continue to hover in place even though it’s now held up by libertine personal values (or lack thereof) and an all intrusive nanny state that “takes care” of your every need and divorces you from the responsibility for yourself and your actions.
Mr. Moynihan was strongly denounced for his (accurate) comments. Kind of like Bill Cosby was for his.
Guess you are only allowed to speak truth to select groups at select times.
I wonder if Whoopi consideres this “rape” or “rape rape”. Horrific and despicable act.
Flat and VX are right. After all, it was a young person that did make the call to the police. Read up on the story and you’ll see how the good people in Richmond walk in fear everyday. This will not make things better there.