Dear Little Texan Girl

Little 11 year old Hispanic Texan Girl
Who wore make-up
And a mini-skirt atop your high-heeled pins,
Who flaunted your body,
Lacked parental supervision,
And a decent upbringing,
And everything else the media said,
To justify the reason why you were gang-raped over 3 months,
Repeatedly, by allegedly 19 men,
Those very readers would avoid on any street.

 

Forgive them their ignorance, dear one,
For they know not
How you lost count
After they set upon you
One after another.
That you lived after this crucifixion
When others might have died
Is a testament to your purpose.
Embrace it like a Seer
To lead the world from talk into action.

 

Dear little Texan Girl,
Walk with your head held high
Like a South American Goddess
With your tresses flaming the sky
And your eyes clear.
Slay those animals at your sacrificial altar.
There is a dawn after this death, dear
Goddess, Priestess, Oracle.
Embrace your strength, dear one,
And love yourself again.



Granted - not a poem that would pass muster...but just letting loose in disbelief and fury at the insensitivity and judgment cast upon this poor Hispanic child since 2011, both in her hometown of Cleveland, Texas, and on internet news forums.

Here was an 11 year old who, for some reason, had found herself trapped in repeated, brutal sexual abuse by not one, but 19-odd men...and women both in her hometown and on the web were demeaning this girl for her dress sense, provocative and brazen conduct, etc. So they thought themselves righteous enough to point a finger at her for having 'split a town in half', instead of reaching out to counsel and heal her? 

Even if this child had been ostracized by her peers for "looking older than her age", surely her teachers might have cared enough to catch on? Did a friend's mother try to connect with her mother? Didn't a neighbor observe her routine? Or was this one of those stories where people just look the other way because no change or good would come of interfering? Whatever be the reason why the community support system did not work, there is no way the rape of a child can be justified.

In a country where the "woman was asking for rape" argument has been thrown out of the window, where child beauty pageants are all the rage, and where (despite the shrill voice of feminism) women have come to associate physical beauty and sex as a positive affirmation of their worth, why ever should it matter what this child was wearing or painting upon herself? She is a child.

The last article I read about her reported that her family had been driven out of town, in the aftermath of her father's efforts to secure some justice. A small relief that one of her rapists will be locked away for 99 years. The legal system in the United States conferred some ruling against the perpetrators - well, mainly because they were poor, jobless loafers themselves. Who knows - had her abusers been rich men, or had she been born in another country, the poor child might have "disappeared"...

As a mother, I feel stricken when reading this little one's trauma. May time heal this poor child, Ameen.