tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5745814378416915364.post5641314171962742875..comments2023-12-23T00:19:35.005-08:00Comments on ADAM'S ALE: SNAP TO ITFr. Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13201561855047420853noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5745814378416915364.post-43234379984935831872007-08-05T03:29:00.000-07:002007-08-05T03:29:00.000-07:00I've been away for a week getting another MBA (act...I've been away for a week getting another MBA (actually, helping my sister with her MBA classes...although it does seem like I'm back in school). Now I'm playing 'catch-up'... <BR/><BR/>Abuse, no matter what form, is intrinsically evil. It is, what I call, a coward's crime. It not only affects, in this blog, the children, but also the families, friends, and generations to come. It is one of the few crimes that, when perpetrated, explodes like wildfire...seeping through society into other forms of evil, be it theft, drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, etc. It is passed down from generation to generation.<BR/><BR/>What I find most troubling is the secrecy and deception. I was abused at 7 by a cousin. My family and I just recently (over 35 years later), discovered that some of my other extended family members were also abused by the same person. You hear your parents telling you, "when something happens, tell an adult". I did...I told his dad, who laughed it off and basically told me his son would not do anything like that. My other family members did not tell their parents because they didn't think they would believe them. <BR/><BR/>Keep in mind that the Catholic church has only recently dug into this issue. Also keep in mind that less than 10% of all abuse cases are reported. For me, this is one of the few crimes, especially when dealing with children, that I have a really hard time not believing in corporal punishment.<BR/><BR/>Sorry...no name this time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5745814378416915364.post-37266751066234665082007-08-02T07:07:00.000-07:002007-08-02T07:07:00.000-07:00Stated excruciatingly well. Maybe it was my pride...Stated excruciatingly well. Maybe it was my pride, but it had once seemed ludicrous for all those who've never been accused of abuse to also be the ones to go through the fingerprinting and seminars and instruction on it all if they're going to be teaching the faith or near students in any way, but we who would indeed pass on the faith will certainly go through such crap and far more to help protect kids, and to at least try to assure those who were <I>not</I> protected that it won't happen to others.<BR/><BR/>There was, and is, far more threat as you say from others who aren't police-able. One 4th grade student preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation disappeared from classes, and not even the RE Director could nail down why. It all broke, as did all our hearts, the day his father was arrested. Dad, after unsatisfactory botherings of his developmentally-delayed daughter who'd at least once had heart surgery, and who bore strange bruises seen in girls' junior high gym classes, had not only molested him and his brother, but had lent him out to their uncle. That, of course, made less of a potentially lucrative headline generated by lawyers on behalf of victims than any clerical abuse here, and not even the investigation, arrest and conviction of a high school chemistry teacher here who'd orally raped a teen brought a shadow upon school systems, except to jog the need for fingerprinting, now, and what should've always been a thorough background check and wasn't. Teachers, however, were not all looked at askance because of this one or the other handful of criminals we've heard of. <BR/><BR/>There is always going to be someone to prey on children, and similar to what you state, if we're, say, concentrating too much attention on one bishop's or one eparch's refusal of an outside audit of safeguards rather than seeing the whole picture of wherever is genuine and even greater threat, we are missing seeing where help is vitally needed. It is indeed children who are paying for that folly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com