Yes, Michigan

Yes, Michigan. The state with the law on the books making adultry a crime punishable by life in prison.

Anyway.

CNN reports that a 19-year-old man from Ecorse went on trial today in Michigan. He's the father of a brand-new, bouncing baby girl. Mom was eleven-years-old when she got pregnant.

Three of the five counts in the indictment are against him for first-degree sexual conduct, person under thirteen, which carries a possible life sentence. The two other counts in the indictment are against his mother and the mother of the eleven year old.

His defense? Not guilty by reason of insanity.

And in mom's neighborhood? No one is outraged or enraged. It's not their business. And this seems to surprise the reporter.

It used to be that I would see my nineth-graders come into high school and get pregnant during their freshman year. About three or four years ago, they began coming in with babies who turned one during their freshman year.

Yes, that means they were getting pregnant at eleven. In junior high. In middle school. Call it what you will.

And no one seemed to care. Not the moms, not the mothers of the moms, or the dads. We were just supposed to fix it all by making sure they passed their classes and the standarized tests that NCLB demands.

They'd fall asleep in class, when they came, because they'd been up all night with the kid. The level of support they had at home was minimal. What we can give them in school falls far short of what they need.

And yet we're held accountable.

When is too soon, too soon? And why is this case any different than all the others? Should we be prosecuting this guy for doing what hundreds of others do? Or should we be charging every sexually active male who has consensual sex with an underage minor with statutory rape?

Who decides? Who's responsible?

Beginning the Blog

Shakespeare once said that action is eloquence.

Min Kim suggests, in Better Blogging Brainstorming, SXSW 2206, that there's always something to write about, and if there's not then you need to live life more aggressively.

One can only hope then, that creating and maintaining this blog will indeed be eloquent. And that life is at least as aggessive as it needs to be.

It's an act of faith for me. Faith that I can find something to say. Faith that there will be someone who finds that worth listening to.

Writing; the state of public education and NCLB; the state of the union; the state of your life; current events and personal issues.

What would you like to talk about?