Not sure how I feel

I read a story about a couple in Snohomish county. 3 years ago they adopted a sister and brother from Africa. The girl was 10, and I think her brother was 3 years younger. The couple also has 3 biological children. The now 13 year adopted girl was recently found dead, outside the family home, naked, face down in some mud. According to the stories, the couple had locked the girl outside, naked, on a night when the temperature fell to 42 degrees. I don't know what the official term is, but basically, the girl was unable to stay warm because she was naked, and because she didn't have enough body weight/mass to stay warm.

Since moving in with her adoptive parents, according to the article, some of the types of discipline that the parents used were locking her in a closet, withholding and/or limiting her food, locking her outside. The article I read said that guests of the couple witnessed the girl being given only bread to eat. Others say that when food was given to her, it was cold leftovers and still frozen vegetables. Allegedly, the girl was also locked out of the house on Christmas morning while the rest of the family celebrated.

Apparently, the parents got their ideas for discipline from a book titled "How to Train Up a child". I can't remember the author's name, but he is a Quaker or Amish man. According to a news broadcast I watched, this booked as allegedly been linked to at least 2 other cases where children have died. The book is available on Amazon.com.

There is a push by some people to put pressure on Amazon to no longer sell the book. On some level, I get that. I remember about reading about a video game that was being sold on Amazon. The entire premise of the game was to breed and train the "best" dogs for dog fighting. That was the whole point of the game. This was shortly after the whole Michael Vick thing, so admittedly, it was not my favorite subject. But again, people put pressure on Amazon to not make it available, which part of me totally agrees with.

But at the same time, we do have freedom of speech in this country. We do live in a free enterprise system. This book and the video are not something I would ever choose to own, or support because that way of looking at the world is abhorrent to me. I choose not to endorse that way of thinking. But then even today, we have some places in this country that ban books. Some people believe that Harry Potter is evil, and would like no one to have the choice to read those books.

I don't know. I see nothing good coming from this book, or the video game. I will be watching to see if this couple (who are currently in jail) will try to blame this book for their actions. Kind of like the Twinkie defense. And in light of the Casey Anthony trial, who knows what a jury might decide.