I am in no way trying to downplay the seriousness of crimes committed against children. They are deplorable acts that must be prevented and punished. That much goes without saying. But we need to draw a very realistic line here in regards to sex offenses. It is unfortunate that lawmakers and politicians see this as the perfect avenue to exploit in regards to their own personal agendas often times involving re-election. Destroying decent people’s lives for votes or financial gain is appalling and disgraceful.
Fear is an extremely powerful tool. Notably among the American populace fear breeds anger and anger breeds hate. It is easy to become blinded by ignorance when one allows their hate to consume them. I know…I’ve been there. But hate will not help our children or our society as a whole become impenetrable to the harsh realities of life. Life is hard and there are many evils in the world. But continually stacking law after law upon a broken system is only going to lead to disaster. It is not going to strengthen it so we need to stop hiding behind the fraudulent ruse that we are protecting our children or our communities. We are endangering them even further.
Case in point: If you were to see a child wandering about alone in a mall would you think twice about approaching them and inquiring as to their parent or guardian’s whereabouts? Be honest with yourself. This is not the time to deceive yourself or anyone else. I, for one, fully admit that I would not approach the child or make contact with them in any way. Instead I would contact the nearest authority figure or a nearby store manager and inform them of the situation. In this day in age fearing for my civil rights and liberties are very much justified. It seems accusations are enough to convict. The media has proven that time and again.
By instilling fear in the general populace in regards to interacting with children we are ourselves opening a dangerous door that allows the minority of real monsters in the world the perfect opportunity to attack. The children are suffering because of our ignorance and our unwillingness to admit the system is critically flawed. In those critical few moments when I would have sought help from another source in handling the matter the child is left defenseless and vulnerable. These are the ideal conditions for a true predator, knowing that a populace is too afraid to protect each other.
Stacking more and more absurd, hysteria-induced laws that tend to hurt decent people over true criminals is not the answer. By doing so we place ourselves and our children at an even greater risk and so the vicious cycle continues. Flooding the system with purported sex offenders of varying degrees and risk but treating them all as if they are the same provides the perfect hiding place for true evil. We are only hurting ourselves and yet we continue this self-destructive pattern.
We watch in silence as the children of those that carry the Scarlet letter but who pose little or no risk to us are forced to suffer unjustly. What about these children and their families? What about the children of a man who at one point in his life had broken the law because he was 20 and had consensual sexual relations with his then 16 year old girlfriend? Despite the fact he is of no threat to his children or anyone else they still must suffer the consequences. They are ostracized and treated like victims or pariahs. If they show support or love toward their father they are questioned or ridiculed. How can we possibly justify this? It happens more than any of us want to admit.
We, the people, need to demand a stop to these highly immoral, unethical, and downright unconstitutional practices that are hurting our nation. We can no longer allow fear and ignorance to rule our actions. We have to take a stand here and now or we risk losing everything the Constitution affords to us as a nation, as a people. Very quickly our civil rights are being eroded away. First a small, specific group was targeted and we allowed it under initially well-founded intentions. But then more laws were created and that small group grew even larger under the ruse that it was ‘for the children.’ Now it has grown out of control. We are considering putting children away for ‘sexting’ as a sex crime? Forcing them to register as sex offenders for the remainder of their lives? Where does it end? It is not longer ‘for the children’ or ‘in the interest of our communities.’ No, this has grown into a feral beast with an insatiable appetite for pure destruction. We need to stop it now before it consumes us all. It is beginning to turn back on its handler and feed upon those it was originally commissioned to protect.
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