Sound off! Land of the condemned.

I really didn’t want to talk about something sad today but with the way the news has been -as most times- I have no choice. The definition of Sound off is to; speak one's opinion without fear or hesitation. This means that the person sounding off is comfortable in their environment to relay their beliefs.

In the military it is the same meaning but there is also an alternative meaning. Sound off is used in the field to announce your presence in a roll call. If a CO barks out, “SOUND OFF!”, he is asking for his team to account for themselves once a mission has been completed -to see who made it and who didn’t. Unfortunately some don’t always make it to sound off.

Why am I talking about this nonsense? Well I think it is time that we ask humanity and society to reply to a mass SOUND OFF!

Yesterday I was reading an article concerning a little 13 year old girl. This 13 year old girl is the center of a court hearing as they attempt to decipher if the child should be charged as an adult or a juvenile. This 13 year old girl is being held for several weeks of counseling, therapy and questioning from police and doctors alike.

Imagine going to a home where the entire place is a complete mess. The house is filled with cats, dogs, birds, and rabbits, all are pets to the owner of this ‘home’. The feces and urine has not been cleaned up for a week maybe more. You look around to see broken chairs, stained walls, torn carpet. The drywall is cracked and in certain spots along the wall and ceiling there are round and oval shaped water stains that end with bubbled or cracked plaster and paint. The bathroom, I will spare you the details save one; it’s not even fit for a truck stop on the highway to hell.

As you enter the kitchen it is much the same, broken dishes strewn across the counter and floor. The ones still in one piece lie submerged in the sink covered by brown rusty water that seems to contain a layer or film that resembles oil, at its surface. The door down the hall seems to be ajar and you are surprised there is a door to probably the only bedroom in this dilapidated excuse for a domicile.

Once down the hall you push open the door with your police issue flashlight to find a man lying on his bed. As you make your way around the debris lying on the floor you realize this man has been shot in the face with a shot-gun at close range. Immediately your mine recoils in fear and you gasp “what kind of monster could do this”? Through out the investigation theories are tossed around as quickly as the garbage is being removed from each room.

In a moment of complete and utter disbelief you hear that the guilty party has confessed and has even explained why the crime was committed. Yes it was the little 13 year old girl, but why? Was it video games or the devil’s music? Maybe the violence on TV? Nope wrong yet again sunshine.

See the girl and her 14 year old brother had been living in this sty with their father. Their loving father was abusing the children in unspeakable ways. Their own loving dad. I don’t condone murder -obviously- but that ‘man’ got what he deserved. And although that young girl will forever carry the baggage that her father gave her as well as the memory of having to shoot him for doing so, it was probably the best revenge she could ever have.

Unfortunately humanity and society as a whole have missed their sound off.

For my “opinion without fear or hesitation” I hope they try the girl as a juvenile not an adult. I also hope that she receives the therapy, love, respect and education she deserves to over come this and become a member of a hopefully better society –if either of those is possible.