Well written Frank.
Marnie for you to accuse me or othesr of having their heads in the sand, is
just, well, plain insulting.
Tom C.
From: frank theriault <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Vigilant or Bloody Minded
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 17:03:01 -0500
On 1/11/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> This thread is making me incredibly angry.
>
> As a feminist is hard to resist ranting about people having their heads
in
> the sand.
>
> Or make some comments about mcps. Or something similar.
>
> Again, people seem to want to identify with the wrongly accused instead
of
> with the thousands and thousands of actual victims. People seem to want
to dig
> out the few times sometimes is accused wrongly, instead of digging out
stories
> of actual victims.
>
> I find this thread turned on its head and wonder why.
>
> I have zero tolerance for pediophilia and zero tolerance for any kind of
> sexual abuse. It happens, it's real. It's not all innocent people
wrongly accused.
> And most of it is perpetrated by people the attacked child/adult knows.
Read
> the statistics in the url I posted.
>
> My former best friend (of 14 years) was an incest survivor that had been
> abused by her father since the age of five. My mother's former hair
dresser
> daughter disappeared. A stranger abduction, raped and murdered.
>
> I am so flipping angry I am now immediately unsubscribing for a while.
To
> avoid ranting, because I am here for photography and I don't need the
grieve of
> ranting and arguing.
>
> Heads in the sand. All I can figure.
>
Marnie,
If I can offer some advice, please don't unsub (we like you, really -
at least I do). If the thread upsets you, just don't read it.
There's no doubt that one of the most heinous crimes imaginable is
sexual child abuse. I think I can speak for everyone here in
condemning it unconditionally. Those who are guilty of it should be
dealt with most severely, and shown no lenience (although there are
clearly differing opinions as to the appropriate limits of such
punishment)
The flip side of that, and a sad reality in this world is that
allegations of child abuse are used as a weapon by sick and twisted
individuals who want to tar and feather enemies. Given the extreme
seriousness of those allegations, it's often the case that those
wrongfully accused (I don't mean just those criminally accused by the
police, but also those accused where the charges never make it to
court) have their lives ruined by those spurious allegations.
Innocent people lose jobs, innocent parents lose families and innocent
children are pried from innocent parents.
I'm not saying what percentage of accusations are groundless, and I'm
not saying that the majority of accusations didn't actually happen.
But, it does cut both ways, and it seems to me that those (like me)
that are talking about the rights of the ~accused~ (not those who are
found guilty, but those who have only had a finger pointed at them)
are simply saying that a mere accusation ought not be enough to ruin a
life.
Don't think of it as the "rights of the accused", as much as the
rights of every individual in society against wrongful prosecution and
punishment.
None of this minimizes my awareness of the horror that victims go
through. None of this means that I don't want those vermin who
violate our innocent children to pay for their crimes. I'm against
the death penalty, as I am forced castration (either physical or
pharmaceutical), but I'm not against sending them to jail and throwing
away the key (ie: life with no parole); at least that way, if there
is a mistaken conviction, a life can somehow be salvaged.
Anyway, this thread has obviously frayed many nerves, including yours.
Everyone has voiced their opinion, and I fear that no one will be
"converted" to anothers' point of view. Perhaps it's time to put this
thread to rest?
Whatever happens with this very contentious thread, however, Marnie, I
hope you reconsider leaving...
cheers,
frank
--
"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
