10.27.2006

John Mark Karr: The New Brouhaha

When I turned on TV to catch some news this morning, I was apparently mistaken in believing that MSNBC or CNN would "tell" me something.

Instead, I got treated to what seemed like a major news story but sure didn't sound like one: the great terror Atlanta was facing now that John Mark Karr - the nutcase who got himself arrested - with his own foolishness - on the JonBenet Ramsey murder case only to be only that, a nutcase - was about to move back to Atlanta to live with the family.

Now, granted, Karr is a real fruit loop. But what always amazes me in these stories where "communities are gripped with fear about a child molester" overlooks the most basic truth and statistic: children are at the greatest risk for abuse - sexual, physical, psychological - from the people they know.

The media loves these stories and America responds, but kids still are at the greatest risk from those they know, those part of their family, and not strangers.