Comments on: The Odds Are Safe

By: w8okn

w8okn — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 00:33:20 +0000

Gretchen was my cousin. I wish to this day they’d keep searching for the murdered.

By: Phillysusan

Phillysusan — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 22:44:03 +0000

I well remember the Gretchen Harrington case. I was 15 at the time. I lived only a few blocks from her. Her house was on me and my brother’s paper route. I knew her sister when she was older and dating a good friend of mine. What strikes me about her case is how little press there was about her abduction at the time and how little mention in general. We kids knew about it because kids talk to each other. But I can never recall my parents mentioning it, or it being mentioned in school which started up again a month later. I don’t recall at all an atmosphere of paranoia around it. Broomall was the kind of town that young couples and families had moved to from neighborhoods in Philadelphia because they wanted to raise their families in a cleaner, safer, more wholesome environment. Adult residents of Broomall didn’t talk about things that would tarnish that image or make them feel uneasy about living there. Like drugs, which were rampant, like sexual predators, of which there a few just within the couple blocks surrounding my house, that all the kids knew about, though not from their parents. It was easier for the grownups to look the other way. I thought then, and I think now that the police should have talked to all the kids in the neighborhood, which they didn’t, because kids always have a better finger on the pulse of the neighborhood than their parents do. And we did not talk to our parents about such things.

Abductions like that of Gretchen Harrington are no more common today than they were in the ’70′s – they remain an extremely rare event. Of course something like the Boston Marathon bombing is a one off – it can’t be predicted or prevented, despite what politicians and public safety ‘experts’ would have you believe. They only thing that is more common today than then is mass shootings. But again, they can’t be predicted, so the paranoia that follows each one is not based in reality. Just because people feel unsafe doesn’t mean that they are unsafe. It is a shame that Americans are so susceptible to fear mongering. The American habit of what I call scab-picking, the endless rewatching of such events on TV, the 24/7 news coverage, the irresponsible ‘experts’ who have made a career out of instilling fear in population, and even the repetition of well-meaning but ultimately pointless memorials just add to the paranoia and destroy any chance people have of healing and moving on.

By: Barbara Henderson

Barbara Henderson — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 23:28:34 +0000

I’m so glad to see some information on this case because I have remembered it for years. In 1975 I was 12 years old and I saw this in our local newspaper (wilmington, delaware). Her picture was in the paper and just a small writing of the circumstances. I have remembered this for all these years. I don’t know why because there have been so many heinous crimes since then. I guess it was the first time I realized that there were bad people in the world and you have to be aware of your surroundings at all times. I have been pretty paranoid ever since, but I am glad because I made it through those young years and am always cautious now wherever I am. RIP beautiful little Gretchen. Even though I never met you, what you went through made me a more cautious person. I wish you didn’t have to go through what you did,

By: Deborah

Deborah — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 20:44:44 +0000

I also remember all too well the heart-wrenching murder of Gretchen Harrington. She was an 8-yr old who went to my school. One of her sisters was friends with my sister and we still have a picture of Gretchen’s sister wearing the hand-me-down shirt that Gretchen was wearing the day she was abducted. Gretchen’s father was the pastor of the church at the bottom of Lawrence Rd and Gretchen was walking up the hill to the church at the top of the hill to attend vacation Bible school. Usually her sister walked with her, but on this day the family had overslept and her father told Gretchen to walk up the hill by herself while he would watch from the house. He watched until she was halfway up the hill and then went back inside. The dogs traced Gretchen’s scent halfway up the hill. I received the call from the school phone tree the day she disappeared that a search party was forming to look in the woods next to the road from which she disappeared. I was too young to join the search party, but I conducted my own little search in a wooded area where I used to play, only because sometimes I imagined that someone could see me playing alone, snatch me away, and do the unthinkable. After several months, it was confirmed that the unthinkable had been done to Gretchen. The police said it was likely that this sweet little girl was killed the same day she was abducted. It had been a rainy day and her killer was apparently able to take her to the Park without anyone seeing them. The place in the woods where a hiker later found her was where the unthinkable ended. But the unthinkable didn’t really end there because the unthinkable was not done solely to Gretchen. The unthinkable was done to Gretchen’s father, Gretchen’s mother, each of Gretchen’s sisters, and relatives. The unthinkable was done to a lesser degree to the community, to you and to me who still remember. The unthinkable was done to children and grandchildren and great grandchildren who were not yet born–theirs, yours and mine because the knowledge,the memories,and the energy that is created from such a horrific act take many generations to dissipate. I like to imagine that Gretchen is now an angel who watches over other little children who, no matter how loved and cared for, can far too easily become victims of the unthinkable.

By: betsy

betsy — Sat, 09 Nov 2013 15:02:30 +0000

So weird, I was having a discussion with my boyfriend last night at dinner about being a female and having to be more cautious when alone in a secluded area as compared to men. I was pondering why and when I first became aware of this “paranoid” insecurity that I live with and mentioned to him about this girl, Gretchen Harrington, who was abducted from somewhere near Lawrence Park (I believe her body was found in Ridley Creek State Park). It is amazing to me that there are other people out there that still recall her name and are still acutely aware of how this murder affected their sense of security. I too will never forget her name. May she continue to rest in peace!

By: rmbectel

rmbectel — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:24:06 +0000

It sure is easy to become wary of everyone. after 2 years living in La, during the Rodney King riots, I learned that your gut reaction to danger when based on stereotypes is usually unfounded. Dangerous people keep changing the signals and the best we can do is use common sense, and dont let them steal our serenity. I saw a great piece after Boston about putting up memorials so terrorists know that they are meaningless. While I see the reasons to mark a tragedy, I understand the argument of not marking it as well. For kids, I think its important to discuss without giving so much detail that they are fearful. Not sure if we will always strike that balance but that is my goal. In the meantime, I celebrate all the good people we meet every day, and try not to fear the one person in millions that may turn out to be a danger. Thanks for the post!

By: Benny

Benny — Mon, 06 May 2013 21:12:15 +0000

“May the odds be ever in your Favor!”
-Effie Trinket