05-20-2003, 05:58 PM
Some thoughts.
On your first quote; On occasion I volunteer to teach in the local school system. It has become a common practice that teaching professionals now work in pairs to prevent these false accusations. Almost all the hobbies that I had loved as a child were taught to me by mentoring adults who were not my parents. I even remember back when I was 7, we had a lake cabin and one of our neighbors was a retired merchant marine captain. He would spend hours during rainy summer days helping me to build model ships and teaching me all about the boats that he loved. Tis a sad, sad, world when adults fear to help to bring knowledge to kids. But, raising false accusations are not a new thing. Salem witch trials? What I condemn is a justice system that cannot distinguish between sexual psychopaths, and normal people. So, they choose to err on the side of condemning all.
To the second; There was a guy I knew who was 25, and he was dating this girl he thought was 18. He was one of those perpetual lonely hearts guys who threw himself into relationship after relationship, only to get dumped after 4 or 5 months. Turns out she was 17, and to make matters worse the guy had previously dated the girls 42 year old divorced mother (how he had met the daughter). When the mom found out she was not only spurned, but wanted this guys liver on a plate. He ended up in a situation similiar to your example. It really messed up his life for about 3 years.
Then there is this nagging voice saying, "When you make bad choices; bad things can happen." Some common sense things come to mind like, don't get drunk and have sex with strangers at a kegger, and for the first situation, I guess being the state of things in the world, always make sure there are multiple people to witness what happens at your parties when you invite juveniles into your homes. Heaven knows that we've all made some mistakes and had lapses in judgement, so it is not fair to judge. Hence, why those lists are useless. Once you know that some of the people on the "deviant" list are really "normal" people who are guilty of poor judgement, then the entire list becomes suspect and then useless.
The criminal justice system ideally should punish, reform, and protect society. IMO, it does a poor job at all of them. That is why we have the largest prison population per capita in the world. Land of the free?
On your first quote; On occasion I volunteer to teach in the local school system. It has become a common practice that teaching professionals now work in pairs to prevent these false accusations. Almost all the hobbies that I had loved as a child were taught to me by mentoring adults who were not my parents. I even remember back when I was 7, we had a lake cabin and one of our neighbors was a retired merchant marine captain. He would spend hours during rainy summer days helping me to build model ships and teaching me all about the boats that he loved. Tis a sad, sad, world when adults fear to help to bring knowledge to kids. But, raising false accusations are not a new thing. Salem witch trials? What I condemn is a justice system that cannot distinguish between sexual psychopaths, and normal people. So, they choose to err on the side of condemning all.
To the second; There was a guy I knew who was 25, and he was dating this girl he thought was 18. He was one of those perpetual lonely hearts guys who threw himself into relationship after relationship, only to get dumped after 4 or 5 months. Turns out she was 17, and to make matters worse the guy had previously dated the girls 42 year old divorced mother (how he had met the daughter). When the mom found out she was not only spurned, but wanted this guys liver on a plate. He ended up in a situation similiar to your example. It really messed up his life for about 3 years.
Then there is this nagging voice saying, "When you make bad choices; bad things can happen." Some common sense things come to mind like, don't get drunk and have sex with strangers at a kegger, and for the first situation, I guess being the state of things in the world, always make sure there are multiple people to witness what happens at your parties when you invite juveniles into your homes. Heaven knows that we've all made some mistakes and had lapses in judgement, so it is not fair to judge. Hence, why those lists are useless. Once you know that some of the people on the "deviant" list are really "normal" people who are guilty of poor judgement, then the entire list becomes suspect and then useless.
The criminal justice system ideally should punish, reform, and protect society. IMO, it does a poor job at all of them. That is why we have the largest prison population per capita in the world. Land of the free?
”There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.
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