I have been reading about the disturbing events in a variety of news sources. Today there was an article on one of the CNN sites that caught my attention.
Apparently, new laws are being called for in Pennsylvania that would deal with how and when sexual abuse is reported.
This raises a couple of questions for me.
Do we really need another law that says abuse should be reported?
We already have laws on the books that deal with this kind of thing, the failure here was that the police didn’t get called immediately.
Why aren’t the rules of common sense enough? Screw telling your boss you saw another boss fucking a boy in the locker room showers, walk to the nearest phone and dial 911 tell the operator you need the cops and at least two ambulances. (One for the child, and then other for the remains of the molester) then leave the phone off the hook so that 911 can record the soundtrack as a cautionary tale for other molesters.
No matter how strongly a law is written if it’s not enforced or enforceable then you’re wasting your time. In fact, you may be giving a scumbag lawyer yet another opportunity to 1) Get a perpetrator off on a technicality because an overly complex law wasn’t followed to the letter. 2) Allow someone with a grudge, or who was overly zealous to destroy some poor schmuck because they were seen naked where a child might have seen them. (There was a case like that in Huntington Beach, CA)
Odious and complicated laws seem to get us in more trouble than they prevent. I think we should let common sense prevail.
A section of the article really caught my attention.
Outside of the legal concerns, many question why McQueary did not stop what he allegedly saw happening in the showers in 2002.
“How does McQueary, a 28-year-old grad student, look in the showers of a facility and see a grown man raping a 10-year-old child and not instinctively grab a baseball bat and not protect this child? How does he live with himself?” asked Richard Hermann, legal analyst and criminal defense attorney.
Why didn’t McQueary instinctively grab a baseball bat?
REALLY?
Ok Let me explain it to you.
This is what comes from telling Men over and over again that they’re too violent, and testosterone poisoned.
This is what happens when you create law after law that protect, and allow criminals to sue and WIN cases against their victims.
This is what happens when you tell a Man he can’t defend himself, his family, or others because he’s supposed to be like a little schoolboy and go tell the authorities.
This is what happens when you create a culture where it is preferable to abdicate the responsibilities associated with being a Man because getting involved and taking a stand is simply too expensive financially, emotionally, and professionally.
I’d wager, that if McQueary had stepped into that shower, and said “Remove your dick from that boys ass” carrying a baseball bat, that the fine Attorney Richard Hermann would have been demanding McQuearys’ prosecution for threatening a superior with bodily harm in front of a child!
SO people… which do you want?
Pussy men who don’t take action?
OR
Men who take action, even though they might sometimes get it wrong? Are you willing to accept and PROTECT Men that take action, even though they might screw up?
You can’t have it both ways!
I’ll take the Men that take action ANY TIME, how about you?
Here’s another chilling fact. Even IF we as a society decide that we really want Men again it’s going to be 20 years at minimum. Because there are too few Men who remember the old rules, the old ways, and fewer still that are in any kind of position to teach those ways.
McQueary may have been a coward, he may have been in deep shock, he may have been simply confused about what to do, mixed signals from the society at large can do that. He will live with his conscience and the vile image of a 10 year old being raped while he did nothing for the rest of his life, and that may be punishment enough.
However, according to the Grand Jury findings McQueary wasn’t the ONLY man to witness improper events happening in that shower. Other maintenance / cleaning staff were aware of other events and they also did nothing.
To me the inaction of these men speaks volumes about how Men in general have been villainized and castrated in our society.
I’m proud to be one of the old fucks, I’ve still got a set of low hanging hairy ones.
I’d have been in that shower in two long strides and when I was done… well the man who was fucking the 10 year old wouldn’t be using his dick for anything except pissing ever again.
Sometimes you do what you know in your heart is RIGHT and you accept the consequences even when you’re punished for doing the right thing.
It’s thin comfort but you can sleep at night… As a Man.