Father’s Influence

I read with horror the Nov. 1 article by the Associated Press about the 13-year-old girl in Marietta, Georgia, being repeatedly raped and molested over a 12- hour period by some two dozen males, some as young as 12. Even though my faith compels me to show compassion to even the most degenerate human beings, my being both a husband and a father of two small daughters makes doing so in this particular situation extremely difficult.

I imagine none of these reprobates has a father — not mom’s boyfriend, but a real, involved, biological father — wondering why they weren’t at home. Instead,the 12-year-olds probably saw the 20-somethings in that abandoned apartment as their father figures. Some role models.

To call these miscreants “men” is a slap in the face of my gender. Real men protect children by being co-responsible for their well-being even before they are born. Real men protect children by not abandoning their mothers before the sun comes up or after the welfare check is spent. And real men protect children by putting their own lives on the line to keep them out of danger.

These predators deserve the full wrath of society and the law. The lost innocence of this young girl, though, is also on the hands of every male who sired these criminals, only to leave them at the mercy of the street. This kind of insane brutality will not go away until men who choose to father children become real, involved, responsible dads.

John R. Hill
Alabama Policy Institute