father's hands
Sometimes, there are so many things wrong with a story that you read in the news, that you want to go back to bed, pull up the covers and not come back out until you've recovered. Prepare to smuggle me some chocolate to keep me going, because I think it's going to be awhile before I emerge from the blankets with this one.
A girl was just 14 years old when she gave birth to her second child. Shocking fact number one. Shocking fact number two? She gave birth to the first child when she was herself a child of 12 -- I know girls who hadn't hit puberty at that age. But folks, this is not the most disturbing part of this. Not by a long shot.
It turns out that both of this little girl's babies were fathered not by some just barely pubescent little jerk with baggy pants and the inability to grow a mustache. No, it was the teenage girl's own father who forced her to have sex with him. Now that I have to go take a shower because I'm so incredibly disgusted, we can go for the real zinger.
The courts reviewed each and every one of these facts and decided they'd charge disgusting Daddy. And then they sentenced him. To six years in jail.
SIX YEARS? For raping and impregnating his own child? Twice? At the very least (because chances are pretty good that it took more than two tries at pregnancy)? To compare this, a man currently in prison for raping a 12-year-old girl is in the middle of a a 16- to 40-year sentence. That sounds more fitting. Or perhaps we should look at the pimp sentenced to 20 years in prison for forcing a 17-year-old girl to act as his prostitute? He didn't even do the sexual abuse on that child himself, and yet it's a sentence more befitting his crimes against a girl's innocence.
What this man, this father, did was break one of the most sacred bonds -- that of child and parent. He took away her childhood with the sex, but just as badly, he took away her ability to find comfort in the one place every kid should be able to find a champion.
Is this sentence just? What would be a more appropriate punishment?

Image via Shutr/Flickr
Dad Only Gets 6 Years for Impregnating Teen Daughter http://t.co/hcLi7xB