Next day
I just read on the local news website that "If convicted as charged, the parents will face 36-48 months in prison." That little kid's wrecked for life, and they get four years, max? They'll be getting out of prison right at the same time she turns 18, and gets kicked out of foster care and becomes ineligible for all the other programs that are available to help kids who've been abused. Great timing.
I just don't understand. Sex offenders spend years in prison and even when they get out they have to register on some list, and be hounded all their lives by watchdogs and self-made vigilantes. I'm not saying it's right to harass people who've "paid their debt to society," but some people really need to be marked in some way, to warn the rest of us. Yes, "us." As in "us and them." Not as a judgment of contempt, but just reality – I want to know when dangerous people are around, so I can steer clear of them. I feel compassion, and I do believe broken people can heal, but mainly, when they're as broken as that, I feel afraid of them. Yes. Them.
This story has hit me a lot harder than it seems like it should, and I think it's because I actually had her at my house and didn't notice anything terrible. For one thing, she's not all terrible – almost nobody is. But it scares me to think what other awful cruelty and madness could be bubbling away just under the surface of so many people around me. It challenges my belief that most people really want to be good. Or not quite that – more that the more I see of life, the more I realize that even people's best intentions are not always within their grasp to actually carry out. Not exactly an original thought.
So: this idea of forgiveness comes up again. Or, how does anyone go on living after something like this?
No answer here. Just lots of questions.
I just don't understand. Sex offenders spend years in prison and even when they get out they have to register on some list, and be hounded all their lives by watchdogs and self-made vigilantes. I'm not saying it's right to harass people who've "paid their debt to society," but some people really need to be marked in some way, to warn the rest of us. Yes, "us." As in "us and them." Not as a judgment of contempt, but just reality – I want to know when dangerous people are around, so I can steer clear of them. I feel compassion, and I do believe broken people can heal, but mainly, when they're as broken as that, I feel afraid of them. Yes. Them.
This story has hit me a lot harder than it seems like it should, and I think it's because I actually had her at my house and didn't notice anything terrible. For one thing, she's not all terrible – almost nobody is. But it scares me to think what other awful cruelty and madness could be bubbling away just under the surface of so many people around me. It challenges my belief that most people really want to be good. Or not quite that – more that the more I see of life, the more I realize that even people's best intentions are not always within their grasp to actually carry out. Not exactly an original thought.
So: this idea of forgiveness comes up again. Or, how does anyone go on living after something like this?
No answer here. Just lots of questions.
2 Comments:
I'm still reeling too.
I just cannot, CANNOT make the connection between even the little I knew of Rebecca and THIS.
--g
I am willing to wear a scarlet A on my chest--just so the rest of you know.
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