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Opening Arguments

Another sick freak

Paging Humbert Humbert:

A 20-year-old Wisconsin man infatuated with a 14-year-old Terre Haute girl allegedly admitted to police that he knew that his sexual contact with the eighth-grader was a crime.

Alex Edwards, 20, admitted he had sexual relations with the girl last August. He told reporters before his court hearing Tuesday he believed the relationship “was the same as like a 26-year-old and a 20-year-old.”

No, Alex, it's the same as like an 18-year-old and a 12-year-old or a 16-year-old and a 10-year-old. Not saying "look what you've done to a daisy fresh girl," but ponder the concept of consent, OK?

Comments

Steven T.
Fri, 03/13/2009 - 3:00pm

Consent itself is a concept on shaky ground, expecially since the study that showed the brains of the eldest teenagers are still not fully matured.

One wonders if even a 19-year-old female who fantasizes about ideals of marriage and children with her first "serious" boyfriend -- if he happens to be several years older and used to the ways of modern single life --can possibly weigh her choices realistically enough to comprehend that the male will almost invariably be gone from her life in a year or less.

And by our definition(s) of free will, should it matter? Clearly, the Europeans have a much more liberal attitude(legally as well as morally) about the 'rightness' of wooing a community's youngest teenagers. Cultural norms aside for a second, is either attitude anything more than a local standard enshrined in law?

Steven T.
Fri, 03/13/2009 - 3:01pm

Don't ask me how I managed to typo "especially" as "expecially." I DO know better, Kimosabe. I need new glasses, so maybe that's it....

Steven T.
Fri, 03/13/2009 - 3:15pm

Before I get jumped on for appearing to be cold to the question I asked at the end of my long post above, I DO believe there is much more than a simple variance in cultural norms between our standard and the Europeans, as we have written our laws against exploitating "underaged" teens.

The recent research only underlines the fact that teens are still developing their independent intellects well into college age. It can't be healthy for our young ladies to waste their first and perhaps one and only true love on an older "player," even if it's perfectly legal in the spirit of consenting adults.

Education once again has got to be the practical answer for now, and that means discussion about seduction by high school seniors as well as college freshman -- if only to get the word out in time.

Steven T.
Fri, 03/13/2009 - 3:18pm

(Groan) Did it again... "exploitating" The mind is willing, but the typing fingers are weak...

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