Jerry Sandusky will spend the rest of his days behind bars. It has ended as it should end. His crimes against the innocent youth who were his trusting charges have been judged by a jury to be as unutterably heinous as we the public have judged them.
Yet I have posed the question before, and I pose it again now, at this seminal moment in the long history of child sexual abuse in our country. Why do we shudder in dumbfounded outrage that this purported icon of university sports culture has disgustingly molested many young people who turned to him for mentoring?
The molester of my young teenage life -- and a double-digit number of other young athletes under his coaching regime -- was outwardly charming, caring and charismatic. He, my molester, looked and acted in every aspect like Jerry Sandusky. A sociopath, he never thought touching sexual private parts of a 14-year-old swimmer on his team was inappropriate. He never considered it wrong to take another 14-year-old on that same team to a local motel and coerce oral sex and intercourse, under the name of "what is very special between them and can never be talked about with anybody else without terrible punishment ruining the swimmer's future." He never considered that the shame and confusion of his acts on a young person who trusted him might loom large as a deep, negative impact on this young swimmer's psyche for a lifetime to come.
As this Sandusky trial has taken our collective breath away, I have heard echoing all across the country this past week such phrases as, "How repulsive this guy is!" and "He was a prestigious coach at such a prestigious university!" and "He's going down for hundreds of years... I can't even look at his face."
We act as if this is a unique situation. We have blared the Sandusky crimes and trial details across our front pages as if he's a Jack the Ripper crime star of our times.
Yes, he's that big a criminal. Yes, justice has been served. Yes, the poor young men who suffered his molestations may never truly put those loathsome, dark moments behind them.
But how many of these same creeps are operating right this minute, molesting our children, our children's children and our neighbors, virtually and literally going after a terrifying percent of our entire youth population?
Thousands, I tell you. Not hundreds. Thousands.
It might have been too late, but we have caught and punished Jerry Sandusky. But when are we going to tackle the pervasive epidemic of childhood sexual abuse?
Jerry Sandusky is most assuredly a deviant. Yet he's not a deviation from the norm in this society.
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Rev. Earl E. Johnson: Jerry's Kids
The reason that a lot of people think he's a pedophile is because of the media. The idea of Michael being a pedophile was really, really juicy news, and so they milked it up as much as they could. They would only talk about the news going against Michael Jackson, never the news that supported his case, and so the vast majority of the public decided Michael was guilty, simply because they didn't have any evidence to think otherwise. Anyone who says that Michael Jackson is a pedophile now has simply not researched the case at all.
So, bottom line: No evidence, no proof, just two families looking to win easy cash.
Personally, I hope the next thing to happen is that he loses every penny, leaving his wife destitute to ponder why she ignored his filth all those years and that Penn State gets its clock absolutely cleaned in civil court as well. The willingness of those closest to him to cover for him is why it went on for so long. Bring it all down.
When we demand that our governments value children enough to properly fund child protection work, INCLUDING requiring child protection workers to have professional education and training and paying at least part of their tuition to get it--too many carry the title of "social worker" only because that's their job title; when we provide specialized supervision for the front-line folks dealing with these horrendous cases day after day; when we provide education to every child of what to do to either to escape abuse or get help immediately after, and ready access to help--which requires funding to pay those who have the expertise to help. For all that people claim to adore children, way too few of those people let that adoration extend as far as calling their local, state, and federal reps to increase funding for abuse prevention and the care of children. Something to think about every time taxes get cut, or tax cuts to the wealthy are extended.
The Roman Catholic church.
It is proven that Roman Catholic priests, with very few exceptions, prey on children with impunity. This has to stop.
A Roman Catholic priest has the best cover there is: he is not married, has access to his prey and he pounces mercilessly with the protection of the CEO in the Vatican, a Nazi.
If you're looking for a monster, you're not going to see it when the abuser is your best friend, your husband or wife, or a close and trusted member of the community. You're blinding yourself by assuming these actions are done by inhuman demons, as opposed to people you know and love.
And if you insist that the only punishment should be violent revenge, you're going to pretend it didn't happen at all when the time comes and you fail to lash out violently like your fantasies tell you that you should. Your motivation IS going to fail you, because you'll never feel certain enough to murder your friend, or spouse, or whoever you care for, and you'll justify it by saying you didn't know what you saw, and couldn't be sure, and keep silent in shame.
If you do suspect anything, report it. Always remember that it can be someone you love and trust. Don't worry about getting violent revenge, just get help - it's more important to prevent further abuse, than to enact some bloody fantasy.
if only we could help them before they do harm
It's a far more loving thing, to respect the child's boundaries.
Must be something about *keeping secrets*....does anyone not see what is very WRONG with this picture???????????????????????????????????????????????? So...let me just say this....we, the people, wonder why there are so many *issues* going on with our government agencies? Well....they employ ALL KINDS OF strange people....there is CORRUPTION AND COVER UP EVERYWHERE.....trust me...I know all about these kinds of people...