“There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien

Although the late Professor Tolkien was writing about creatures that inhabited his Middle-Earth, evidence has clearly presented itself this week alone that they live and thrive in this era.

Nor have such creatures limited themselves to the planet’s bowels. Instead, they’ve moved up and live on the surface. They’re skilled at such acts as child abduction, vandalism and, I dare to say, politics.

Let’s begin with the episode of the 11-year-old Carrollton girl reportedly taken from a school bus stop earlier this week. This was not just a kidnapping of someone’s child for custody rights. Instead, the suspect is said to have taken her someplace and assaulted her sexually.

Why children are considered fair game for someone’s adult pleasure is a mystery. Actually, I know the reason, as do you: children are vulnerable and easy to abuse.

To its credit, for I’m loath to use a pronoun, the girl was returned alive to where she abducted. We must take our consolation where we can.

In the time that I was writing this column, a request was made for the newspaper to publicize the search for the suspect. I explained that the newsroom’s initial thinking at the time was the event was out of our coverage area and appeared then to be localized. But since then the net has being cast wider, and hence the item on A1.

Then there’s the wanton destruction of headstones at the Butts Family Cemetery in Sebrell. As I surveyed the damage, the term ‘orcs’ came to my mind, hence the original inspiration for this column.

If only the dead could have reached out through their graves at the time and grabbed a hold of the vandal(s). The shock would have turned them into gibbering idiots or killed them dead. Either way, the image makes me smile, and I don’t even have relatives buried at the otherwise peaceful site.

Mindy Purvis, who made the discovery, told me that she wondered if this act was what’s popularly known as a hate crime. In this instance, did evidence suggest the act was motivated by racial hatred? But there were no epithets that I could see, only epitaphs broken and scattered by someone who apparently enjoyed destruction for its own sake. Well, that and knowing decent people would likely feel hurt by the act.

Then there are those creatures that have successfully diminished the country with their shutdown of much of the government. Yes, I know that’s an overly simplified description.

We sought out local people affected by the closing, but they’re not talking either by fear or law. So, if you want a fuller picture of the situation, then I can only recommend “PBS Newshour.”

There you can see those ‘older and fouler things’ wearing suits or dresses and claiming their actions are justified to anyone who’ll listen.

I wish they all would go back underground.