Honey, is my Sweatshirt with the big red 'A' back from the cleaners yet?
Submitted by Alan Harvard on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 12:33pm.
State House
long time ago, when I was a boy in Jr. High, my teacher forced me to read The Red Pony, The Pearl, Beowulf, Edgar Allen Poe poems and several stories by Nathaniel Hawthorn.
I didn't read The Red Pony - I cheated on the tests, or skimmed it before quizzes. Beowulf, well I liked the parts where they mamed the guy. Was that Beowulf right? The poems - well I was not into poetry that didn't involve toilet humor (some say I am still of that mindset) and I couldn't get a date to save my life - so why in the world would I ever need poetry?
BUT
Nathaniel Hawthorn and Edgar Allen Poe made a dent - they still haunt me. I am really not much of a literature hound - but I do remember the themes, and the "lesson learned".
There was one book where every year all of the townspeople were forced to take aslip of paper, and one of them had a black dot on it. Whoever got the black dot was stoned to death by the other townspeople. I cannot recall the name and author now - but the theme was that they did this every year because they always had - and no one really knew why. I always refer to that book when I am dealing with certain 60 year old white men who run government offices. (I guess if I knew the name it would be more effective?)
The Pit and the Pendulum. Another that haunts me. I remember reading this story as a kid and having to put the book down. I must have been 14 or so, and even today I have nightmares about that thought. There are even some 'torture' scenes in James Bond movies I have to turn my head from because of it. I would assume Poe would be pleased that 170 years after the penleft the page - he is still haunting my mind.
Now although those two stories haunt me personally - and resonate with a lesson learned for most - THE SCARLET LETTER is what I will remind you of now:
Ohio already tags repeat drunken drivers' cars with bright yellow license plates. Now it wants to make convicted sexual predators use fluorescent green ones.
A bill introduced Wednesday would require all habitual and child-oriented convicted sex offenders to display the easy-to-spot plates.
Ok - now if I am against this - I am OF COURSE soft on sexual predators, and THEREFORE maybe I AM ONE - RIGHT?! That's how our opponents would talk, and that's why this bill will most likely sail through the Legislature, and why my favorite Governor will have to sign it. And that sucks.
My concern is not with this particular piece of legislation really - I am more unhappy with the road this leads us down. What's next - plaid bumperstickers for everyone that paid their taxes late? Maybe bright orange cowboy hats for anyone that makes five gramatical errors in an email.
I am also concerned about how we define a 'sexual predator'. Someone who forces themself on a minor is not the same as someone who buys dirty pictures from China.
Earlier I used great literary minds as references - now I will use a modern day philosopher:
Mitch Headberg: Alcoholism is a disease, but it's like the only disease that you can get yelled at for having.
"Dammit, Otto, you're an alcoholic." "
Dammit, Otto, you have lupus."
One of those two doesn't sound right.
I don't think that a sexual predator has a 'disease'. ( I am gonna get hell for this one.) Just because someone has a different attraction than you does not mean that something is wrong with them. Hell, that's what the Conservative Christian Wackos talk about gays: "Them boys like other boys? Well that just ain't right -them boys are sick!" I truly believe that these sexual predators have a true and uncontrolable desire to do these things, and instead of forcing them to be publically humiliated, we should instead offer them the care they need.
Ok, I covered a lot of topics, and did not do so elloquently here. Maybe Jill will jump in and streamline my thoughts. She seems to have done more book learning than me....er...than I....whatever. I look forward to the conversation.
I have gotten a ton of e-mails on this today - so let me clarify
Submitted by Alan Harvard on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 6:18pm.
Here's a note I got today:
Your favorite overly-PC-private-school-chick-friend, naturally has decided to weigh in on this... I think that the post was well done.
BUT:
I think that when you compare the way that people react to sex predators to the way that conservative christian whackos react to homosexuality, that you are degrading gays without probably meaning to. Of course, I for one don't consider homosexuality to be unnatural. But I do think preying on children *is* unnatural, and it is in NO WAY the same as homosexuality. This belief, in part is what prevents loving couples who happen to be gay from adopting children who otherwise fall through the cracks of social services and foster care. comparing it (even in a loose way) to sexual predation of children is really not fair.
Also, sexual predators have been statistically found not able to be 'rehabilitated'. If I were a parent, and concerned about my children's safety, I would probably not think the lisence plates thing was such a bad idea- children are kidnapped all the time, and maybe a warning on the car would help kids to identify people to stay far, far away from.
If the argument you are trying to make is that it is a slippery slope, or dangerous precedent, well the other side makes that argument all the damn time- including their arguments about gay marriage, abortion and a bevy of other things... and I think it is not a terribly effective way of making a point.
But, hey, you know, that's just my PC-Private-School-Chick opinion. :)
-------------------------------------- And here is Alan Harvard's Reply:
I don't think you understand that you just re-iterated (how do you spell that?) my statements.
Fuckin liberal private school kids - they all take an idea - 1/2 understand, and then waste too much oxygen making THEIR point - which is NOT original - but is at least in their own words - so they are happy as pie.
You just said that sexual predators cannot be rehabilitated - and neither can gays right? (just ask the chrisian wackos) Cause they were born that way - both groups. AND both groups are a target for conservative wackos.
I am SURE there is a weak-kneed liberal out there who is offended at how I said this - what they will say is that I lumped their god-fearing gay values with those who molest childern. I did NOT do such a thing. I said that the wacko christian fundamentalists have/do/will.
I, however, DID go on to compare the 'disease' of sexual preadatoriness (is that a word?) to that of alcohlism - which I too believe has been found to be hereditary in some fashion.
Someone could then deduct that we deal with the problem by eliminating temptation from these people, the same way we do with alcoholics.
IN CONCLISION - what we need is a 12-step program for Sexual Predators, not public humiliation.
Convicted perverts should wear scarlet letter green license tag
Submitted by Kent MacKenna on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 8:54pm.
around their necks. Relapse is too likely and too hurtful, sometimes lethal. Protect our kids and damn the criminal urges of child molesters.
The Story with the black dot, Alan
Submitted by DelCo Dem on Mon, 03/05/2007 - 10:44pm.
Is "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, and I know that because my 13 year old daughter asked me last Saturday what the worst story was that I ever read. I explained it as the story about humanity being sheeps, never questioning authority until it personally affects the individual who then finds a social ritual "barbaric". I read that story forty years ago and it still "haunts" me. Probably more so now as an adult as it is easy to make parallels to current events.
on that point...