It’s time for a fresh step – and we’re not talking kitty litter. Let’s start fresh discussions and step in new directions! So for the sake of cool beginnings, we’re running three items this week, and we want to know what you think about any or all of them. (If you’re not into these ideas, feel free, as always, to write to us about whatever you want.)
1. RIGHT VS. WRONG
“The two slaying suspects, ages 7 and 8, sat patiently at the defense table, legs dangling above the floor Monday (Aug. 10), as prosecutors accused them of fatally bludgeoning an 11-year-old girl to death last month in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood.
Despite often-gruesome testimony, the boys, who are now among Chicago’s youngest-ever slaying suspects, seemed mostly oblivious. The 7-year-old, with a pout on his face and his black hair braided neatly in cornrows ending in blue beads, sat hunched over a yellow legal pad, using a red pen to sketch a house with a smoking chimney below a sky filled with heart-shaped clouds.
“Am I going to jail?” he whispered to… one of his attorneys. In response, she handed him another sheet of drawing paper.
In an adjacent chair sat the 8-year-old, a wide-eyed boy with close-cropped black hair and wearing a red polo shirt and green shorts with a red stripe running down each leg. He played with a package of Skittles candy and smiled at family members…”
-From a story by Maurice Possley, Page 1 of the Aug. 11 Chicago Tribune.-
The boys mentioned above were accused last week of killing 11-year-old Ryan Harris. Police say the boys confessed to hitting Harris in the head with a rock as she was riding her bike, then dragging her body into the weeds and suffocating her with her underpants. Police also say Harris was sexually assaulted. They say the motive in the slaying may have been to get the bike.
Legally, the boys are too young to be charged with murder. Most people, upon hearing what the boys allegedly had done, reacted with disbelief. No one that young could do anything that horrible, they said, or even have the physical strength for such an attack. Many of the boys’ neighbors said these were good, ordinary kids.
If these boys did commit this crime, could they have known what they were doing? Can kids that young understand such actions, and the consequences of them? If they’re guilty, how should they be punished? Experts are struggling with these questions. But it’s your world, too, so give this case some thought. Talk it over with family, friends, classmates. And if you want, write to us.
2. MJ VS. US
If we can’t get MJ’s thank-you card to him (see Page 3), where should it go? We’re thinking of donating it to a public place (like maybe an art center or museum) where kids from all over can go see it. But what do you think? (No, we’re not sending it to your house; nice try.) Write us!
3. HANSON VS. THE WHOLE, ENTIRE REST OF THE WORLD
Reader Jenny C., 13, writes: “Recently, there was a small, minor, unheard-of event known as Lilith Fair. And at this small,unheard-of event there were small, unheard-of people like Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Liz Phair, Bonnie Raitt and Des’ree. Obviously I’m being sarcastic. Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that for the last 3 weeks it has been Hansonmania. And I’m sick of it. Not one mention was made of Lilith Fair.
You should try and cater to your other readers, or rename this section Hanson news, not KidNews.”
OK, so you can’t please all the people all the time. Still, the scads of kids who called us immediately after the Hanson concert are totally into the group, and when the hottest guys around (like ’em or not) come to town, it’s big news. Also, when we finally nabbed them for an interview after two years of trying, we just had to take that story and run with it!
Still, we definitely feel we have covered Hanson thoroughly, until they put out a new album or get married or something, and we are more than ready to move on! Stay tuned for upcoming interviews with the Backstreet Boys and Usher. And please, be sure to write us and tell us what new groups you’re into!
Also, Jenny, why don’t you send us a review of Phair’s newly released album, whitechocolate-spaceegg?
