Word: au
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...surrender. I have been doing my best to keep actively ignorant about this whole nanny--excuse me, au pair--thing and it has become impossible. People across at least two continents are obsessed with the case of Louise Woodward, the 19-year-old au pair from Elton, England who was convicted last Thursday of second-degree murder in the death of the baby she was hired to watch...
Yesterday's Boston Globe reported that the television audience viewing Tuesday's court proceedings equaled in numbers those that watched the O.J. Simpson trial. The au pair case has been front page in The New York Times and The Boston Globe for days. Even Washington has jumped onto the bandwagon. Last week, with near prescient timing, the White House sponsored child-care conference about the dearth of safe and responsible child care in this country...
First, a quick review of the Woodward-au pair issue: a number of months ago, an eight-month-old baby boy, Matthew Eappen, died after his brain was compressed by a blood clot. Soon thereafter, Matthew's au pair, Louise Woodward, was charged with second-degree murder for purportedly beating Matthew so severely that his skull fractured, leading to the blood clot that caused his death. Last Thursday, Woodward, who was hired as Matthew's au pair through an international au pair program under the United States Information Agency that pays the au pairs room, board and stipend in America...
...never felt this way so strongly about anything," he said. His comment underscores the way the au pair issue has crystallized serious fears in our society and quickly transcended the particulars of this case. Matthew's mother, Deborah Eappen, worried after Tuesday's proceedings that her son's death had been lost in the tumult, The Boston Globe reported yesterday. People have forgotten about this one family and their one son--a clear reminder that the tragic death of one child is not seen to be the critical issue at stake here...
...before the state legislature and many of Jeffrey's relatives were in the balcony for the House's decision. But why should we equate justice with revenge? Juries are fallible. This fact is evident nowhere more than in a Cambridge jury's controversial decision last week to convict British au pair Louise Woodward of second-degree murder. The electric chair is final; its current seals jury convictions forever...