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America Can Relax; The Casey Anthony Show's Over
Jul 10, 2011
The FBI reports that 1,494 children under the age of 18 were killed in America in 2008.
Of these children, 221 died before their first birthday; 338 were murdered between the ages of 1 and 4. Most of us know the name of only one of these victims: Caylee Anthony.
The temptation is to use the next 600 words to decry America's obsession with the murder of one little girl in Orlando, Fla., while we ignore the violent deaths of 1,493 other children.
This is, after all, what columnists do when we're concerned that America is losing its way. We like to tell ourselves that it's just an issue of your being distracted, and that with a few carefully chosen words of outrage, we can redirect your attention to what really matters. What really matters to us, anyway.
This is arrogance on our part, to be sure.
In this case, it's also just as surely magical thinking.
My, how so many of us loved to hate Casey Anthony.
The 25-year-old mother, accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, almost single-handedly -- if you don't count the thousands of hours of media coverage -- gave millions of Americans permission to feel judgmental and superior. We like that. A lot.
Anthony's trial, covered gavel to gavel, also made it a whole lot easier not to think about all the other children whose lives are in peril, but invisibly so.
As the Annie E. Casey Foundation reports, for example, three times as many African-American children live in poverty, compared with white children. One in five rural children lives in poverty, too. And one-third of America's children are in families where no parent has a full-time job. None of these statistics makes for compelling television, I realize.
Which brings me back to Casey Anthony, who is young, white and photogenic. She lied. A lot. She also refused to meet our standards for a grieving mother. She was too aloof, too quick with a smile. Her hair, her clothes, her tattoo, her sex life: God, what a mess, we declared, riveted.
Day after day, hour after hour, we had at her.
Strangers traveled hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles to stand in line for the chance to sit in the courtroom, and then offered their instant expertise to reporters waiting outside. Even the most local of news outlets posted breaking alerts about her trial.
After the jury acquitted her last week of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse, Twitter and Facebook exploded with verdicts to the contrary. The judge and defense attorneys say they're concerned about death threats against Casey and the jurors. Because, by golly, that's how you honor a child who's been murdered.
Soon enough, we will forget about Casey Anthony, but not because we'll turn our collective concern to the 15 million children living in poverty, the 17 million who go hungry or the 8.1 million who are uninsured. We like to focus on one at a time.
In 2009, the year after Caylee Anthony was killed, 1,348 more children were murdered in America.
Here's a partial list of the FBI's breakdown:
Infants: 193
Ages 1 to 4: 298
Ages 5 to 8: 72
Ages 9 to 12: 71
Ages 13 to 16: 400
Who among us can name even one?
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Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Connie Schultz
Connie Schultz is a nationally syndicated columnist for The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Creators Syndicated.
The FBI reports that 1,494 children under the age of 18 were killed in America in 2008.
Of these children, 221 died before their first birthday; 338 were murdered between the ages of 1 and 4. Most of us know the name of only one of these victims: Caylee Anthony.
The temptation is to use the next 600 words to decry America's obsession with the murder of one little girl in Orlando, Fla., while we ignore the violent deaths of 1,493 other children.
This is, after all, what columnists do when we're concerned that America is losing its way. We like to tell ourselves that it's just an issue of your being distracted, and that with a few carefully chosen words of outrage, we can redirect your attention to what really matters. What really matters to us, anyway.
This is arrogance on our part, to be sure.
In this case, it's also just as surely magical thinking.
My, how so many of us loved to hate Casey Anthony.
The 25-year-old mother, accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, almost single-handedly -- if you don't count the thousands of hours of media coverage -- gave millions of Americans permission to feel judgmental and superior. We like that. A lot.
Anthony's trial, covered gavel to gavel, also made it a whole lot easier not to think about all the other children whose lives are in peril, but invisibly so.
As the Annie E. Casey Foundation reports, for example, three times as many African-American children live in poverty, compared with white children. One in five rural children lives in poverty, too. And one-third of America's children are in families where no parent has a full-time job. None of these statistics makes for compelling television, I realize.
Which brings me back to Casey Anthony, who is young, white and photogenic. She lied. A lot. She also refused to meet our standards for a grieving mother. She was too aloof, too quick with a smile. Her hair, her clothes, her tattoo, her sex life: God, what a mess, we declared, riveted.
Day after day, hour after hour, we had at her.
Strangers traveled hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles to stand in line for the chance to sit in the courtroom, and then offered their instant expertise to reporters waiting outside. Even the most local of news outlets posted breaking alerts about her trial.
After the jury acquitted her last week of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse, Twitter and Facebook exploded with verdicts to the contrary. The judge and defense attorneys say they're concerned about death threats against Casey and the jurors. Because, by golly, that's how you honor a child who's been murdered.
Soon enough, we will forget about Casey Anthony, but not because we'll turn our collective concern to the 15 million children living in poverty, the 17 million who go hungry or the 8.1 million who are uninsured. We like to focus on one at a time.
In 2009, the year after Caylee Anthony was killed, 1,348 more children were murdered in America.
Here's a partial list of the FBI's breakdown:
Infants: 193
Ages 1 to 4: 298
Ages 5 to 8: 72
Ages 9 to 12: 71
Ages 13 to 16: 400
Who among us can name even one?
Connie Schultz
Connie Schultz is a nationally syndicated columnist for The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Creators Syndicated.
The FBI reports that 1,494 children under the age of 18 were killed in America in 2008.
Of these children, 221 died before their first birthday; 338 were murdered between the ages of 1 and 4. Most of us know the name of only one of these victims: Caylee Anthony.
The temptation is to use the next 600 words to decry America's obsession with the murder of one little girl in Orlando, Fla., while we ignore the violent deaths of 1,493 other children.
This is, after all, what columnists do when we're concerned that America is losing its way. We like to tell ourselves that it's just an issue of your being distracted, and that with a few carefully chosen words of outrage, we can redirect your attention to what really matters. What really matters to us, anyway.
This is arrogance on our part, to be sure.
In this case, it's also just as surely magical thinking.
My, how so many of us loved to hate Casey Anthony.
The 25-year-old mother, accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, almost single-handedly -- if you don't count the thousands of hours of media coverage -- gave millions of Americans permission to feel judgmental and superior. We like that. A lot.
Anthony's trial, covered gavel to gavel, also made it a whole lot easier not to think about all the other children whose lives are in peril, but invisibly so.
As the Annie E. Casey Foundation reports, for example, three times as many African-American children live in poverty, compared with white children. One in five rural children lives in poverty, too. And one-third of America's children are in families where no parent has a full-time job. None of these statistics makes for compelling television, I realize.
Which brings me back to Casey Anthony, who is young, white and photogenic. She lied. A lot. She also refused to meet our standards for a grieving mother. She was too aloof, too quick with a smile. Her hair, her clothes, her tattoo, her sex life: God, what a mess, we declared, riveted.
Day after day, hour after hour, we had at her.
Strangers traveled hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles to stand in line for the chance to sit in the courtroom, and then offered their instant expertise to reporters waiting outside. Even the most local of news outlets posted breaking alerts about her trial.
After the jury acquitted her last week of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse, Twitter and Facebook exploded with verdicts to the contrary. The judge and defense attorneys say they're concerned about death threats against Casey and the jurors. Because, by golly, that's how you honor a child who's been murdered.
Soon enough, we will forget about Casey Anthony, but not because we'll turn our collective concern to the 15 million children living in poverty, the 17 million who go hungry or the 8.1 million who are uninsured. We like to focus on one at a time.
In 2009, the year after Caylee Anthony was killed, 1,348 more children were murdered in America.
Here's a partial list of the FBI's breakdown:
Infants: 193
Ages 1 to 4: 298
Ages 5 to 8: 72
Ages 9 to 12: 71
Ages 13 to 16: 400
Who among us can name even one?
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