Open letter to John Ramsey

I am really sorry that for the last ten years you and your wife, may she rest in peace, have had to live with the knowledge that most of America figured that one or both of you had something to do with your six-year old daughter's death; that we spent a fair bit of time disdaining you because you put her in beauty pageants; that we suspected that there was some connection between the beauty pageant thing and her death (because, you know, being a "bad" parent automatically means you're probably a murderer, too); and that your wife died before we learned that apparently the two of you were telling the truth. I can't say I blame you for embracing the tabloid and daytime television exposure initially; I'd probably do the same if, god forbid, I were in your shoes. I'm sure if I did so, I, too, would be raked over the coals about some of my decisions as a parent. And I can't imagine how awful it must have been, not only to live with your daughter's death and being unable to solve the crime, but also being popularly considered somehow to blame for it.

I hope that if this arrest has, in fact, caught the guilty party, that it helps make up a little bit for what we've all done to you in the last decade.