I have actually come up with several things to write about recently but haven’t. Why not? Because of time. Not lack of time to write because I could come up with it, but actual time, as in time of day. I have found that I do my best writing at night and without a lot of distractions. I have access to the internet during the day. So I either have to force myself to write during the day which for some reason is hard for me, or, write at night and save the document to a memory stick and bring it in to transfer to the a net accessible computer in the morning to edit, add links, and post. This puts a real damper on doing research while writing.

But enough about my troubles. Last week a rather disturbing little story hit the airwaves briefly from Acworth Georgia. It seems three boys, aged 8, 9,and 9 were arrested for the alleged rape of an 11 year old girl. While disturbing, I am not here to write about the collapse of civilization that may have lead to such an event. No, there is something that I find a bit more disturbing going on here too. But to set the background I will continue with the tale. The girls tells her mother she was raped, police arrest the three boys. One boys parent come out and declares that the sex was consensual and the girl is yelling rape because her mother found out and she doesn’t want to get in trouble. Thus far this all sounds like an old story. Certainly nothing new.
What caught my ear was a comment made by (I believe) the chief of police in Acworth. He said, (not an exact quote but close) “I understand a parent wanting to defend his child, (referring to the consensual accusation) but this presumes that consent could be given. This girl is too young for that, it couldn’t. It was illegal.” Now on the surface this seems pretty clear until you remember that the two accused are younger than she is. So by that logic, they really can’t be held accountable either. In fact, USUALLY the older person in a sexual relationship is held accountable. So this is kind of weird right off that bat. But on a deeper level than this, according to this Police officer, any time an underage person has sex, one or both of the involved parties is committing a felony sexual offense. After all, if consent cannot be give at all by an underage person for sex that clearly means that any and all sexual contact by person under the age of 16 (in Georgia) is rape of some form or another. And everyone involved is subject to being listed as a sex offender and being listed for life. The mind just boggles sometimes.

And yes, before anyone asks, there were people muttering about charging the two boys as adults. (?!?!) Luckily (?) in Georgia you have to be at least 13 to be charged as an adult. (so you can be an adult criminal at 13, can’t drive till you’re 16, can’t vote till you’re 18 and can’t drink till you are 21. Someone really needs to redefine adult sometime soon)