Yesterday, I posted a diary which almost--but, sadly, not quite--made it to the Rec list; if you didn't read it, here's a recap--be prepared to become very, very angry:
Dying Girl, 7, Taunted by Neighbors in Trenton
TRENTON, Mich. - Her family says 7-year-old Kathleen Edward is in the final stages of a degenerative brain disorder diagnosed as Huntington's Disease - the same disease which killed her mother, Laura, when she was only 24.
Neighbors Jennifer and Scott Petkov, who have been feuding with the family, admitted to posting grim depictions of Laura and Kathleen on Facebook. One photo depicts Laura in the arms of the grim reaper, while the other features Kathleen's face above a set of crossbones.
The couple also have a coffin hitched to a pick-up truck in front of the house, which they say is nothing more than a halloween decoration.
Read the whole article and watch the whole video...if you can do so without throwing a brick through your monitor.
TODAY, I'm happy to report the good news:
--A Facebook page has been set up to bring attention to these pieces of human feces.
--Another Facebook Group has been set up to support the little girl.
--Reddit, among others, is raising money to help the family.
--Here's a guy who owns a toy store near the neighborhood in question; apparently the fundraising event is running through him; I can't personally vouch for whether it's legit or not, but it sure seems to be, and he'd be firebombed if he tried to scam anyone off of this story.
--A rally for Kathleen Edward has been planned for Saturday, Oct. 23 from 3 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at Haas Park in Trenton.
Meanwhile, the backlash from the public furor has resulted in something resembling an "apology" from the scumbag couple in question:
Trenton — A woman apologized Friday after being overwhelmed by the escalation of a long simmering neighborhood feud that spread to the Internet after she posted pictures of a terminally ill 7-year-old girl’s face above a set of crossed bones and a picture of the girl’s dead mother in the arms of the grim reaper.
“What I did was ignorant and wrong and I would walk right across this street now and apologize, if it weren’t for the PPO (personal protection order issued against her earlier by a court),” said Jennifer Petkov, 33. “I’m not proud of myself because this went from a neighborhood dispute to a huge thing.”
Personally, I don't buy her or her husbands' apology for one minute. Watch the video and it's clear that the only reason they apologized was due to the consequences, not because they had the slightest recognition of how horrific their actions were.
But, still, it's something. I guess.
Bless you, little girl.
Update: Just when you thought this was the most horrifying story you'd read today, another similar one ups the ante:
Four Bullied Teens Dead by Their Own Hands at Ohio School
MENTOR, Ohio (CBS/AP) Sladjana Vidovic's body lay in an open casket, dressed in the sparkly pink dress she had planned to wear to the prom. Days earlier, she had tied one end of a rope around her neck and the other around a bed post before jumping out her bedroom window.
The 16-year-old's last words, scribbled in English and her native Croatian, told of her daily torment at Mentor High School, where students mocked her accent, taunted her with insults like "Slutty Jana" and threw food at her.
...
The family watched, she said, as the girls who had tormented Sladjana for months walked up to the casket - and laughed.
"They were laughing at the way she looked," Suzana says, crying. "Even though she died."
My God.
If you're a parent, I want you to imagine that Sladjana--or Kathleen--was your daughter.
Then imagine her classmates--or your neighbors--were the ones to do this to her.
