The Conjuring and Haunted People

I do not like horror movies for one simple reason: violence and pain is not entertaining.

There is too much real horror in the world for us to get our jollies from “fake” horror.

So I was intrigued when I read about The Conjuring, no real violence? Only a modicum of bloodshed? Has a man known for his scarifying horror porn turned a corner in making a scary movie with old-school methods instead of new-school exploitation?

Perhaps. But I don’t usually stray into movie review just for kicks.

The reviewer I read pointed out that most of us just say–why doesn’t the family move? That is the second time this week someone has posed that question in connection with horror. The first time the question was in response to the 7 deadliest neighborhoods in the US. A friend asked–why don’t they just move?

There is no reason why a fictional family beset by camera-funded haunts could not up and move except the placement of the crafts services table.

In real life however, the answer is right up front–poverty. People stay because they are too poor to move. The neighborhoods stay dangerous because poverty does not fund decent law enforcement.

Poverty begets crime, neglect, and the exploitation of our most vulnerable citizens.

When the money is gone so is the safety. We live in a dangerously impoverish country–little girls left in trash bins and garbage bags. Grown women murdered by a sex offender who stalked their neighborhood…then left them curled in trash bags. Kidnapping and harm.

The value of human life is plummeting in our country. Law enforcement does not keep us all safe–especially in the poorest places.

Ironic. We all know this movie will gross millions, hundreds of millions, all the while the gleaming cities of America go bankrupt, and more children die in our haunted streets.

Where could we move to be safe?

The Age Factor: Ahlittia North

Sometimes in the effort to write about extremely difficult stories I cut corners in my clarity of purpose.

It is hard to face so many tragedies.

But this time I need to be painfully explicit:

If the news report is correct, Ahlittia’s mother was a mother by 14. Her current partner is 46.

13 year olds do not decide to have sex for kicks (with other 13 year olds). They are more likely to be the sexual targets of older men. That is rape.

When I was 13 I knew a young woman who was pregnant as a result of incest–raped by her step-father. I hope he went to jail for it, but I am not optimistic.

I do know that my schoolmate was brave and deserved more support and help than she received. To carry a pregnancy at 13…to walk through the aggression of rape by a family member…

Her child is 30 now.

When I say, good folk did nothing, I mean this–

Whatever the story of Ahlittia’s murder, her life proves that her very young mother was a victim as well.

Baby girl is gone, who will help Lisa North? And more to the point–who could have helped before her kindergartener was murdered?

What happened to Lisa was a crime.

What happened to her daughter was unspeakable. But we must learn to speak it.

Make yourself uncomfortable. Ask the hard questions. And treat the Lisa Norths of the world like kin.

Because, to quote Carson McCullers–the life you save may be your own.

–praying for Lisa.

Gizzell Kiara Ford

I went to the Vietnam memorial with my father once. He never said much about his time in the war but I knew it was a game-changer. He combed the wall in silence looking for a name, names…when he found the one he was looking for he touched it in silence. Memories of the dead.

This is my Vietnam memorial. Gizzell Kiara Ford is on it. Beautiful child. Lost.

Alittia North–Another Child in the Trash?!

I tried repeatedly to post the Amber alert for Alittia North. Facebook did not allow it. I can’t tell you why I did not blog about her other than a lack of information and a sinking feeling.

Now the information is grim.

No one should ever throw a child away. No one should ever treat a human life like a discarded gum wrapper.

Years ago I taught in a neighborhood where a little girl was found in a trash bin. There are no words to describe the pain of knowing a beloved child has been treated so abominably. It lowers the value of all human life and raises the haunting question–why?

It seems to me our modern record is becoming mired in the bodies of our children–young, defenseless, abused, and murdered.

Do not turn away. Do not pretend this is some kind of statistical inevitability. In every case like Alittia’s someone did something terribly wrong to a child and…a whole bunch of regular folk did nothing to stop them.

Is More Better? Polyamory and the Murder of Alanna Gallagher

Okay….this seems like it should be bigger news than it is.

While I appreciate everyone’s efforts to validate this family’s decision to pursue a polyamorous relationship, I just keep thinking about my latest parenting theory gone bust–

We have resident barn swallows who are very protective of their young. Sometimes the family consists of mom, dad, and babies, but sometimes there is an additional parent–presumably a second adult male.

All the parents are very attentive. I admit I have envied them a bit–thinking that, quite frankly, adult male sexual partners are a pain in the a…, but a super-attentive manny would be nice.

The police seem to be at a dead end in solving the brutal murder of a little girl, but one thing is sure–all three of Alanna Gallagher’s “parents” failed her utterly.

She would have been better off with the barn swallows.

Chilean Abortion Fight

I maintain that it is a significant social crime–a matter of national injustice, that we are advocates for the extermination of the innocent to the neglect of our children.

This article about Chile seems to offer a window into our problem. A young girl is raped for 2 years at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend and…. it is a cause celeb for abortion?!!

First of all–no psychologist worth their salt should ever, ever focus on a “therapeutic abortion” over the profound emotional damage caused by 2 years of systematic rape.

And second–

If this little girl had had access to abortion there is a significant likelihood that her abuser would have pushed for the abortion and the abuse would have continued.

We are all to be shamed and rebuked if the hypothetical “right to choose” subverts the real right for a child to live in safety and get help when she has been raped.

We are worse than animals if we do not comfort, protect, and bring justice for children who have been raped.

And speaking from personal experience–we don’t.

(Where is that Wendy Davis?!)

Any nation should mourn for it’s very soul if it does not protect all the little children–mothers and babes together.

At the Saginaw Intersection

The last article I posted was heartbreaking–this blog post gives more information and is unbearable.

No one should treat another human being with that kind of savage cruelty.

All we have to look for a–a red truck with a paint splotch.

So start looking. This little girl deserves justice. The children who found her will need help to carry this terrible memory.

And none of us are safe.

Senator Davis–please.

This is on your doorstep, your watch. Do something—poor little one

I know you will say what every other elected official has said to me about the dangers our children face–

it is not my issue.

Make it your issue. Please do something to bring about justice for this poor child. Justice for her and protection for all our little ones.

Please. I am begging you.

SCOTUS decides on child pornography

This decision is infinitely more important than the DOMA suit.

Let’s see how much press it gets, who weighs in on the issue, and what Justice Kennedy has to say about the honor and dignity of children. Now that he has shown this is an important issue for him: the rights and legal protection of children.

Time to pony up, Your Honor.

Pony up.

No Justice for Jada

Another story you don’t want to read–an innocent child abused to death by drug addicts but the court vacates a legitimate sentence of murder because they do not see sufficient intentionality?

Are they crazy?

Nope.

In fact, they are being highly pragmatic. They are reflecting the value of a single child’s life in our culture. How much is Jada’s suffering and death and the lies told to cover her murder worth to you?

Make some noise. Justice for Jada.