A LIKELY STORY: WHEN INNOCENCE IS LOST, NOTHING IS GAINED

While about 30,000 cheered the leader of the free world at Capaha Park Friday, I sat in a mostly empty courtroom listening to a 9-year-old girl describe the circumstances of her rape.

My disappointment at not seeing the president was long forgotten. My thoughts instead turned to innocence, or more specifically the loss of it.

To me, innocence is simply a point of view, a perception of the world that doesn't exist. When we're innocent, a time for most of us that has long since past, we think the world is a great place where great things can still happen.

We all are born innocent and most of us stay that way throughout our childhood. That's what makes children so special. While children, cookies make us smile and we live for Christmas, water balloons and Saturday morning cartoons.

Happiness is a candy bar and sadness is a Band-aid.

Disappointment only rears its ugly head when you have to eat something green or your bike gets a flat tire while Dad's not home to fix it.

That's the way it's supposed to be for kids.

But as we get older the cookies begin to lose their flavor and we realize that there is no Santa Claus, cartoons aren't real and broccoli isn't so bad after all.

Inevitably, some of us become cynical. We began to realize that the world is inherently evil with some sick and vile people who do sick and vile things.

The people who do great things are in the minority and, ultimately, the world is no better than its weakest links anyway.

Some weak links that come to my mind are Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Andrew Lyons. There are others -- too many, unfortunately.

When we realize this, our utopian perception of the world, our innocence, evaporates. It's gone and, like home, we can never really go back again.

But children aren't supposed to feel this way. They're innocent, at least until they're not anymore.

The little girl told the judge that she had been tied up and raped while other children played outside. She said the man's girlfriend was also in the room and was watching, silently.

The little girl began to weep as she testified and they had to take her out of the courtroom to calm her down.

And I remember thinking after they escorted her away that, at 9, her innocence was lost and with that the best part of her childhood was stolen.

And that was sad.

I wonder if now, for this little girl, there will ever be a Santa Claus again? Will the sun ever be as bright? Will a mud puddle ever be too much to resist that she'll just have to joyously stomp it?

Will every male face contort to take on the features of the man who stole her innocence? Will she ever sleep soundly again? Will she ever be able to trust someone?

Will she?

Obviously, I don't know; no one does. We can hope that, with therapy and a supportive family, she can put this whole thing behind her.

I don't know if that will ever happen, but I do know one thing: Her life will never be the same again. Ever. And neither will mine.

Our society demands that the man charged have a presumption of innocence, despite the fact that he has been convicted of a similar crime before. And we must give him such a presumption. And we will.

For now.

~Scott Moyers is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.