(foreword: Rita was a nine year old girl who lived in a Baltimore suburb. She died last year, and it was all over the front page, and the TV news, and started a big investigation into County Social Services. Her mother and her mother's boyfriend have both been convicted and sentenced for murder). RITA by John M.                               I am so sorry, Rita.                               I lived in the same city.                               They were my schools too                               they were my case workers                               my police.                               If not mine, who then?                               Aren't the people who live                               in a city                               the ones who shape                               what the city becomes?                               Decades ago                               a man with dirty, torn clothing                               and wild eyes                               came stumbling into a small                               Jewish town in Poland.                               He grabbed everyone he saw                               and yelled and pleaded                               and tried to push photographs in                               their face.                               People thought he was strange                               and tried to avoid him.                               But the Elder Rebbe felt it                               his obligation                               to listen.                               "Look! Look! These are real!                               I escaped last week                               but they are doing these things                               they are really happening!                               Now! We must do something now!"                               No, sir you must be tired                               and hungry                               I'm sure it's been a hard trip.                               Perhaps you're tired and confused.                               "NO! NO! I saw it!"                               But sir,                               it couldn't be true.                               No one would do this                               not even the Nazis.                               It simply is not possible.                               These things don't happen.                               You'll see. It is some kind of a                               trick. A hoax.                               "NO! NO! Buna!                               Dachau! Sobibor!                               IT IS REAL!"                               But none of the Jews in                               the quiet Polish town                               did anything. It was                               simply too monstrous to be true.                               I'm so sorry, Rita.                               When the teachers asked                               where all those bruises came from                               and you just looked down and didn't answer                               why didn't we know then?                               Rita, when you lost more                               and more weight                               from such a thin little body                               and your 'mom' and her boyfriend                               didn't think keeping you                               from starving                               was worth the cost of the groceries                               and the refrigerator was padlocked                               and you were beaten for asking                               none of us noticed.                               You had chicken pox. Like all                               kids, you scratched the scabs.                               No, Rita, they said, you mustn't.                               And they took you down                               to the basement                               and opened the tiny closet                               and bound you with CHAINS                               and locked the door.                               So you wouldn't pick the scabs.                               I wish I were exaggerating.                               I wish this was made-up.                               I am getting ill                               writing this.                               But Rita,                               they tied you with chains                               and locked you in a basement closet                               and starved you.                               and beat you.                               Mrs. Mom and Mr. Boyfriend.                               And I didn't know it                               and your neighbors didn't know it                               and child protective services didn't know it.                               The first any of us knew                               except you                               the police were taking you out                               of that unspeakable horror                               of a nice suburban house                               in a body bag.                               So none of us got to say                               how sorry we were                               that in our neighborhood                               our town                               this happened.                               Because you had died.                               For those last                               lonely, confused                               excruciating moments                               when it must have felt like all the world                               had deserted you                               I am so, so sorry.                               But like the Rebbe                               it is simply too hard to                               imagine that monsters                               in human form                               really walk the earth                               and do these things.                               I'm crying now, Rita                               and it's been a year.                               i am so sorry