FROM THE DRIVER'S SEAT, June 11, 2011 -- SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN

DATELINE: WATCHING THE CHILDREN DIE AND ASKING WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH US – It’s been one of those weeks, where every time you turn on the news, buried beneath the stories of the newest ‘member’ of the US House of Representatives, and how it’s owner has the moral compunction of a snot ball, or the incredible number of penalties issued in a frigging hockey game, is a headline about a child abused, a child murdered, a child tortured. Why these are not the FIRST stories to be discussed is rather beyond me. We have become blasé to the torture we put children through, not even bothering to report on the ones who are starving, the ones who are still living in tents, caves and rubble in Haiti, the ones who daily demonstrate a grace and strength second to none when faced with adversity; we ignore them, because the image of a skeletal child to weak to scoot the flies from its eyes is really much less glamorous than Paris Hilton’s pantyless exit from her car, much less spectacular than Charlie Sheen’s Adonis/tiger bullshit crap and corruption ‘how much I can bilk you stooped people this time’ real winners tour and flame-out.

Buried in the headlines in May of this year was a UNICEF report that people from the province of Daraa in Syria were being detained in appalling conditions, many of them children. That was in May. Now in June, we have the second report of a teen who was snatched up by Bashar Assad’s government, tortured, killed, and returned to his family. This would be the second that had made it to North American media. God only knows how many others there are who haven’t found their way to YouTube or Facebook. This child, 15 years old, was taken on the same day and from the same area as Hamza el-Khatib. Tamer Mohammed al-Sharei was shot in the knee. His face was bruised black, his teeth were all pulled out. Who the hell gets off doing this to children? Who gets off doing this to anyone? There can be no question that international involvement is required here. We are talking about Syria, where it was just revealed by the Atomic Energy Agency, these people have also created a plutonium reactor; undoubtedly the makings of another nuclear disaster with radiation leaks to wipe out more people because they just don’t give enough of a damned to make sure its done properly. When the hell are these asshole leaders of asshole regimes going to get their heads out of their asses? Oh yeah, never, not unless the rest of us stand up for those who are so completely oppressed and say enough. Until then, all we can do is make sure the names of these children are not forgotten, because as we stand back and do nothing, say nothing, we become as guilty as the dickhead Syrian thugs are, and Bashar himself is, in their deaths.

Of course despots and dictators do not have the market sewn up when it comes to the absolutely reprehensible hell we tend to believe we can put children through. Enter Doctor Earl Bradley, a 58-year-old Delaware paediatrician who is currently on trial for sexually abusing 86 of his little patients. The average age of his victims was three. How can this happen, you ask? Well, he used hidden cameras, including one in a pen that he used to take pictures of his little patients genitals. If his patient was good, he would take her to get a ‘treat’ in another room, or he would say that he had popsicles that would help with pain control after shots, then take the child for that, creating excuses to get the child away from the parent. It was for a popsicle; what parent is going to get alarm bells about that? Once out of eyesight, in his other rooms where he had the ‘treats’, he also had cameras set up to film him forcibly holding the child’s head for oral satisfaction, and that wasn’t the worst of it. For ten years, this sick fuck had access to children, creating a long list of victims who will spend the rest of their lives trying to understand and deal with what happened, and their parents who will forever be consumed in a hell of guilt and rage, all because Earl Bradley is a majorly sick bastard who should never have been allowed near a child, and who should never be allowed to see the light of day again.

Along the same vein, we have the entire Casey Anthony clusterfuck. There is a little girl dead, for no reason, killed at the hands of someone in her own family, someone who should have offered nothing but unconditional love to the child. Why is this so hard? When did it become acceptable for us to consider children as dispensable? Casey Anthony pretends to cry, feigns sickness, anything to not have to deal with what is going on; anything to avoid accountability, and let’s face it... she is accountable. There is no doubt that she is fully aware of who murdered her child, and if she is sincere that she is, in fact, ‘not guilty’, then why the hell has she not provided evidence as to who is? She has blamed her father for sexually assaulting her, as well as her brother when she was a child, but we know she is a pathological liar, so those have no credibility, plus they are not offered as evidence of her innocence but rather an excuse for her actions, so she doesn’t have to own them. She lied about the drowning, she lied about the babysitter, she has lied about everything. If she did not do it, she damned well knows who did, and if she is not prepared to help convict the murderer of her child, it’s as if she did it herself anyways. The bottom line is that this woman, this family, should not be allowed to have access to children at all. The parents know what is happening, and while I can understand that they love their daughter and don’t want to see her facing the death penalty, there were things they could have said or done to help put this issue to rest... for everyone’s sake. Hell, Casey was more than prepared to toss everyone else in her family under the bus, everyone but her boyfriend; that says a mouthful.