gang rape article: bad angle

[trigger warning for outrageous rape apologia]

Good morning,

I'm writing with my concerns about your article titled "Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town". I am deeply upset by the slant this article takes, focusing on the harm done to the town and to the perpetrators (by their own actions) rather than on outrage on behalf of the victim of, as you title it, a vicious assault.

The fact that this article even suggests that this girl could have brought this on herself by her dress and behavior is reprehensible. I know that we haven't reached a time when a woman won't be accused of "asking for it" when she's raped, even though that would be a horrifying suggestion EVEN IF the victim in this case had been a fully-grown woman, but I am disgusted beyond words that this article takes that approach about a girl who's only 11 years old.

Your article has done a great deal to humanize the men who participated in what is a subhuman act, and your position that they were "drawn into" this act does all right-thinking and right-acting people a disservice.

I am accustomed to knowing that there will always be individual people who disappoint me. I am sorry to see how deeply the NYT disappoints me today.

In outrage,
aroraborealis

do me a favor, would you?

Hey, you! Yeah, you. Would you like to do an extremely awesome thing for me?

I adore Cadbury creme eggs far out of proportion to what's reasonable. During the couple of months each year that they're available, I have to be careful about how often I go into stores that sell them, lest I subsist entirely on liquidy sugary deliciousness. Delicious, yes. Nutritious, no.

What I really want is to be able to have these year round -- not a steady diet of them, but an occasional treat! Unfortunately, I know that buying a year's supply for myself will result in a week of extreme sugar high, and then a year of pining.

Here's where you come in!

Your mission, should you care to accept it, is to go buy a few of these sugary time bombs and store them somewhere until some time later in the year when you think to yourself, "Hey, I bet it would surprise aroraborealis to get a couple of these today!" Then you can deliver them to me in whatever way most strikes your fancy. I will be surprised and delighted, trust me.

Yay? Yay!