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Victim blaming in the New York Times

Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town

An 11 year old girl is raped by a gang and we're supposed to care that

They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said.

And also:

“It’s just destroyed our community,” said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker who says she knows several of the defendants. “These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.”

Yes. Those poor poor boys. Who are accused of violently raping an 11 year old. The attack that they recorded on their cellphones, by the way. I feel ever so terrible for them. Oh wait. I completely feel nothing but contempt and disgust for those men. And great amounts of sympathy for the 11 year old girl who was raped.

Just go read this

I’m Not Your Scapegoat

Audrey Barbakoff, a public librarian in Wisconsin, says what I've been thinking for a very long time.

Librarians add incredible value to society. We help children develop the early literacy skills that will allow them to excel in school, reduce their dropout rate in high school, and continue on to higher education (and incomes). We help unemployed patrons learn the tech skills they need to find work. We provide enriching books and company to isolated seniors. We are defenders of intellectual freedom—safeguarding free, nonjudgmental access for everybody.

And those are just among the things we are asked to do.

We also do a million little things that were never in our job descriptions. Every day, we cope with patrons dealing with homelessness, mental illness, and extreme poverty—along with their ramifications. We are the default social service for those that have slipped through the cracks. I can’t imagine that anybody would take all of that on just because they want to make $40 grand a year. Like teachers, nurses, police officers, and many other public employees under fire, we do it because we understand how critically important it is.

I think most people have no idea what it is we do. And I don't claim to be perfect.

I know everyone's already seen it. But I still love it.

and a bit more.