We know a Scarlet Letter is the historical, puritanical, mark of an adulterer. Do you find the modern day Maryland “Scarlet Pumpkin” below to be enough of a warning against pedophiles and violent sex offenders to be effective on Halloween eve?
Child abuse takes many ghostly forms and has a multiplicity of fathers. I can still remember, decades later, the one time I was enticed by an older man and how the awful hauntings of that dungeon-like experience still threaten me today.
Sexual harassment and felony sexual assault are serious crimes in society and the bent of most reasonable people is those found guilty of those infractions must pay a harsh penalty in the loss of face in the community and serious jail time and a lifetime branding for some as “registered sex offenders.”
What happens, however, when the social norms and the ongoing tradition of a sub-culture in a community accepts anti-social behavior and inappropriate touching as a normal interactional expectation?
We all know a life is worth six bucks, but as a child I found out the first betrayal is worth five dollars. There are some betrayals that are so base and so entirely intimate that one is seared forever in the sacred memory and by the sanctity of the moment.
Continue reading → The First Betrayal: A Five Dollar Beating
The Arts & Entertainment (A&E) channel has a new series on cable television called Intervention that is both awful and touching in the same moments. The story of Tamela was especially moving. Tamela, beautiful, strong, smart, a winner in every surface respect, is a “cutter” in her core or, as the National Institute for Mental Health labels her illness, a “self-mutilator.”
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