An 8-year-old should be free.
Free to play and laugh and learn and love. Free to be a child. Free to be innocent. Free from judgment. From hate. From those who would do the unthinkable.
An 8-year-old should be protected.
By the systems in their lives: schools and rules, police and fire. By their community. By neighbors and friends. By other children. By basic human decency.
And by their parents.
We reported this week one of the worst stories any of us had ever heard. A story far worse than any of us had ever imagined.
Police said an 8- year-old girl was lured by four boys behind a shed and raped. While other children watched. The attack lasted 15 minutes, until someone heard her screaming.
When police took the girl home, officers say, her family blamed her, saying she had shamed them.
The family is from West Africa and police say they're investigating what role culture may have played in this.
But there can be no culture, no belief system, no religion or tradition, which excuses the shame and callousness of what this girl's family is accused of doing.
While we are a nation of immigrants -- our own culture a tapestry of many beliefs -- culture itself must be founded on the very basic values and ethics, which instinctively dictate right and wrong.
We teach tolerance in this country, and respect for those who might disagree with us. Yet I can't imagine anyone who isn't disgusted and appalled by the very notion of blaming a victim, a child no less, for her own rape.
If there is such a belief system, anywhere in the world, our message to them should be unyielding and clear. If you seek refuge here; If you seek the freedoms and benefits of a democracy, then you must cast aside the barbarism which you might label tradition or faith.
There can be no compromise in this, for if we can't unite behind the cause of a child's safety and well-being, then our own lives don't rise to the level of anything resembling culture.
