Chesters and Tree Jumpers

These are prison terms for child molesters.  Chester Molesters and those who f___ goats and jump from trees.  Good descriptions of the 'creature' found guilty yesterday on 45 counts of child molestation. A little voice in the back of my head is telling me to avoid using his name, because the s.o.b. doesn't deserve one.....except maybe I can refer to him as the snake.

The panel of jurors found the snake guilty of hurting, abusing, raping, and molesting children.  The worst of the worst crimes.  What makes me sick is the way he hid behind a charitable organization while he crawled and cruelly took advantage of at-risk kids.

News reports commented how he laughed and snickered during his trial.  One of his adopted children was allegedly abused by him, as well.  Then there's Dottie.....the loving and loyal football coach's wife who testified that they slept in the same bed and her loving husband came home for supper every night.  Victims testified how she stayed upstairs and didn't respond to their screams for help as the snake raped them in their family home.  Is this a horror story or what.

Let's just pretend there's a bunch of boys having a sleep-over in our basement.  Young boys fooling around, having a grand old time.  I don't know, but isn't there a difference between hearing kids horsing around and kids screaming for help?  Most humane adults would check to see what was going on down there if the noise elevated regardless of their activity.

My stand is strong on this.  I worked in the juvenile justice system.  I spent years reading graphic reports of children under age 2 and up to age 18, being brutally molested.  We flung reports up against the wall because of those bastards, those pedophiles.  There's no space open on this planet for those who hurt our children.  Each and every single one of us is responsible for the children, whether they belong to us or belong to our neighbors and friends.  Vigilance is the word I'm looking for.  All of us must be vigilant and watchful for the slightest signals that something doesn't seem quite right.

The mother of victim #9 testified how she couldn't figure out why her son didn't have underwear or socks in the laundry.  One night her son called her late at night to come pick him up at the snake's house.  When she got there, he was waiting outside without shoes.  Her son's behavior started to change.  His stomach hurt, he couldn't sleep, there were issues with his studies, and he complained how he couldn't go to the bathroom right.  She took her son to the doctor.  The diagnosis was acid reflux, with no physical exam of the boy.

My intent is not to rehash the trial.  I want to turn up the volume on our adult responsibilities.  Parents of children need to focus on the welfare of their kids, and maybe less on working hard to buy them $150 sports shoes.  Our values somewhere along the line went haywire, and we're feeding the wrong end.  We've got to open our eyes and our ears, and if our intuition spikes the least little bit, let's play close attention to what's going on.  Inquire.  Do whatever necessary to make sure our children are not being hurt by those in high places.  Our Creator gave us an intuition for a purpose, and we cannot and should not ignore signals.  Children are vulnerable, they live under intense peer pressures, they easily get trapped in situations where they really don't know what to do, who to tell, and even what's right and what's wrong.

We must teach our kids to protect their bodies.  A body is a temple.  Let's teach them that it's okay to scream at the top of their lungs if someone touches them in the wrong places.  There are snakes hiding everywhere, sometimes disguised as sports heroes, icons like a Penn State football coach.

Let's not be naive to the real world.  Let's not hold onto old-fashioned and unrealistic optimism.  No matter how we sugar-coat our America, don't for a second think we aren't walking on mine fields.  We have got to take our children's hands and walk beside them and watch out for them until they reach the age of majority.

It would be easy for me to write a thousand-page essay on this topic.  For me to not write my feelings would feel morally wrong.  Our justice system fanned its feathers yesterday, and I take American pride in that.  The snake is going home to hell.  Prison populations viciously despise pedophiles.  Even if the court rules to keep him separate from the general prison population, his cell will be a sweet corner of hell.  I've seen the innards of a maximum security prison, and the snake is going right where he belongs.

My heart goes out to the victims of this atrocious saga.  Hereafter, may you be held in Our Creator's hand, safe and loved.