Saturday, January 27, 2007

Are You Following The Genarlow Wilson Story?

I was in the dark about it myself until I read Mark Cuban's brief coverage of it over on Blog Maverick.

I then quickly swung over to Blogcritics and picked up on the great Sal Marinello's coverage:

…the horrific story of how Genarlow Wilson, a then 17-year-old high school football player, was sentenced to 10 years in prison without parole for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl who admittedly initiated the act.

Wilson was an outstanding student who was his school's homecoming king; he was a hard-working kid and a football and track star who was on the path to attend an Ivy League school. Everybody liked him. He never got into any trouble.

Now, as his future has been robbed from him, he rots in jail. Doing hard time with hardened criminals.


Everyone messes up from time to time, particularly when you're young. A 17-year-old having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old at a party may not be something to tell the grandkids about later in life, but it's certainly not something to command hard prison time for.

The people of the state of Georgia should demand that Genarlow Wilson be freed straight away.

You can find an online petition here.

5 comments:

Goodlife Dubai said...

it's this kind of stuff that makes me terrified for my son.

How on earth can I protect him from this kind of stuff? What on earth can I teach him about how badly he can get burned by sex, and still make sex seem like something worth doing from time to time? LOL what a mess.

Staff said...

Yes, it does seem as though the normal-ish things that kids get into are more fraught with peril than they used to be. Or is the media simply more voracious these days, so we hear about and amplify and share stories far more quickly? And perhaps this amplification and discussion and clamor can cause positive change?

Or maybe it's just kind of a mess, as you say, solomother!

Thanks for the comment!

Goodlife Dubai said...

whatever the reason, i'm turning off my television.

Wait. I don't own a television!

It's depressing. I was musing this evening on this topic again, and wondering if i'll have to tell my 15 year old son to find 18 or 19 year olds to have sex with so he won't be arrested for it. But then, they could be arrested for having sex with him. will he have to videotape his sexual experiences, not for kink, but for protection?? *boggles*

-- christina
not too happy about the state of affairs.

Staff said...

There are so many dozens of things to be worried about kids getting caught up in, this seems like it should be the very last of them!

Anonymous said...

this is absolutely outrageous. kids do worse these days.... the drug dealers and gangs should be in jail not Genarlow!