I have been uncharacteristically quiet about a local tragedy for several reasons. First, better writers are giving it the attention it deserves. Second, I don’t see any good or bad guys. I see teenagers. Everyone involved in this is connected in far less than six degrees from every other teenager in Knoxville. When I did try to connect dots, I was scolded by a parent who didn’t want to consider any connection between her child and someone else’s child. Third, I have spent enough time with this population to know that their experiences are not something anyone’s child should ever endure. They detach emotionally and behave in very primal ways to survive. Once you have looked in the soul-less eyes of a 14-y-o as they explain that their acts as a drug whore didn’t count as sex, the world looks a little bleaker than it should. There will never be justice for this child. It will always be an injustice.

That said, I am angry about the article in today’s newspaper. It reads like a PR piece for the Sheriff’s department and calls a grieving mother a liar. Everything that was written by that mother was her personal experience. She is living a walking nightmare right now. The author of the article has no right to judge or deny someone their very raw feelings. The comments that are being allowed on the newspaper website are vile. I have some very specific thoughts for the article’s author that I won’t post here. I do hope that nobody makes the mistake of granting Don Jacobs an interview in the future.