A Facebook-growl greeted me this a.m. One of my dear friends voiced her anger over the following article from The Daily Beast concerning the teenage-rape victim from Houston and the internet’s response to it. Groggy-eyed, this is what I wrote:

“There is something horribly medieval about this. Have we entered our own Dark Age or was this activity always around? Has the internet exposed us for what we actually are or amplified he vilest of us?

I know there has always been a small, fairly quiet camp of people with degenerate behavior (read:eagerness/compelled to hurt animals and children). The internet allows for that behavior to become the viral image, the snapshot that will define us. At the moment that makes me sad, but sadness is puny and ineffective. Outrage only lasts so long. Strength is what is required here. Not the I-can-beat-you-within-an-inch-of-your life variety, but the kind displayed by the great…