Issue of the Week: Human Rights

We are about to start the Independence Day weekend in the United States.

So let’s revisit our Issue of the Week from July 4, 2017. It deals fundamentally with the issues of what freedom and responsibility mean, starting with the issue of child sexual abuse and protecting children in a world where we allow over half of all children to be abused and neglected.

Critical events have been occuring in our world and are as we write. We will be to them soon.

But today we simply share the post from six years ago that ties many of the issues together that we have been dealing with throughout history and that speaks to the inter-related nature of these issues today as well.

First a critical excerpt from our post on May 30, which was an update after the Issue was first posted.

It was brought to mind recently by a story about a therapist responding to the sense of loss a client was expressing about their incestuous bilogical family, whose abuse had ruled out any relationship in any event, but had also deprived the client of what that family should have meant. Her response was with a straightforward tone that spoke for itself: “You mean your blood family. As opposed to a family of choice who demonstrates real love in action.”

Here’s the excerpt:

Before proceeding, there is a relationship to the day this is in the US–Memorial Day. Or rather, the historical day for Memorial Day. It’s now on the last Monday of May to create a three-day weekend, so sometimes it falls on May 30 and sometimes not.

The day is in the main a remembrance and honoring of all those who have served, been harmed and died in the armed forces and related service. It is also, as we’ve pointed out before, a day when individuals, family, friends and so on are also sometimes remembered in rituals such as visiting where people are buried or memorialized.

There is a commonality in concept here, and many ironies. Those who served deserve our thanks. Others too often do not. They can, dead or alive, be like haunting darkness, even when the culture pulls and pulls, especially to the importance of blood ties, feeding on every insecurity and promoted by every ennobled concept that in fact is the opposite of love. Real love, which is always based on universal values, has no relationship to blood. The irony that the worst war in human history which we are fighting another vestige of today, was against an ideology that worshiped blood above all else, is its own instructive fact.

The war zone, for too many of us, for half of all children as the World Health Organization and others have told us, is childhood itself.

Every act of violence against a child is horrific, but not understanding the unique violation of child sexual abuse, especially in the family, is like not having basic instincts. It’s as intrinsic as understanding you have to breathe to live. 

And so, in 1999, the year World Campaign was launched, the British actor and director, Tim Roth, created the film, The War Zone, about father-daughter incest. It’s as grueling as it gets.

In the post before last, we pointed out, as we have again and again for years, that the worst blight on humanity, child sexual abuse, is getting worse exponentially because of the internet. Abuse incidents doubling every year, now doubtless in the hundreds of millions of digital crime scenes of actual abuse, starting more and more with babies, because the tech world puts profit over even a modicum of conscience, except as pushed to some extent by activists in the usual branding needs for public appearance, because governments have not done their job in policy, and because all of us, with rare exception, are enmeshed in enabling and avoidance to various degrees, even those who have convinced themselves otherwise.

So now to six years ago, and a sweeping revisting of this issue and all the related issues of the moment–and historical issues of basic rights, needs and personal growth, or regression, for all humans throughout history.

7.4.2017:

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This is the first Independence Day in the US since the presidential election. So we return to a continuation of examining the issues related to it.

We need to note the testing yesterday by North Korea of an ICBM. The fact is that if not already, North Korea will have the capacity by most public expert estimates to hit the west coast of the US with nuclear weapons in a year or so. That is an estimate that keeps shrinking. This is such an enormous issue that it requires a separate singular focus soon. But it underlines the importance of the US presidency where the decisions are made that determine not only US but global security.

Last week was dominated in the US by the tweets from President Trump related to members of the media.

The attacks on Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough personally (particularly the sexism regarding Brzezinski) and on CNN as the latest media example would be mind-boggling to put it mildly, except it’s exactly what’s happened continuously from day one of Trump’s announcement he was running. And before. So what has happened, and why, and what will happen next are the germane questions.

There are many reasons for the outcome of the election. We are going to focus here on a pivotal moment that relates to the underlying issue we have to face as a species—the abuse of half the children on the planet, mainly by their own families.

Specifically, what has often been called the murder of the soul, sexual abuse, the single most repulsive act for most humans to imagine. The context in which, as noted before, The New York Times editorialized that the protection of children is the primary obligation of all adults.

First, some other general observations.

Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton “deserved” to win—a different measure than the best outcome, but a necessary reminder. She was vastly more qualified and competent, by galaxies. But she was part of a Democratic Party that abandoned the working-class decades ago. There are two parties representing Wall Street and the rich and various identity groups. The “liberal” party has often been getting more money from Wall Street and the rich for a while, if that helps mental clarity. This always leads to explosion.

What will happen to the two major US political parties now is unknown as we write. The dynamics that led to the change from a progressive anti-corporate Republican Party to a progressive working class Democratic Party and then to two corporate parties over the past century were in part predictable and in part not. Predictable is that catastrophe seems to be needed to create the next level of equality in human history (incremental change is important to a point, in setting the table for what the next level of change will be, but so far, the great leveler has been mainly in response to the horrific.) And yet the underlying cause of the horrific is inequality time and again. And the fire this time, the one already underway globally, will extinguish the planet unless inequality is extinguished first.

By the way, yes, yes, yes, this means equality of outcome in basic needs for everyone. It goes without saying and is generally encoded if not always practiced that human rights in every other sense must be applied equally to everyone regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation and so on–The Bill of Rights in the US for instance should apply to everyone. The human right to basic needs has also been encoded increasingly, and clearly is essential, the precondition for any right is to survive, to exist, ergo to have adequate food, housing, health care and so on. The resources are still there to easily do this, but that equation more than ever is changing on a finite planet—overstated worries about this just a few decades ago are coming closer to reality because of things not done then. Yes, the absolute level of poverty has gotten better as measured by certain yardsticks, and we are the first to say that success is real and needs to be remembered to counter hopelessness (our initial work had this point at the forefront). But when even the establishment

organizations are talking about the rollback of gains against hunger, the counterpoint is made.

When we were kids, if we were told that a few thousand people had more money than half the people on earth, much less counting the former on two hands, we would also have known that the global Bastille was be about to be stormed. As Selma Hayek’s character (poor Mexican immigrant) reminds John Lithgow’s (rich white ruler of the world) in “Beatriz at Dinner”, the walls won’t protect him. (Lithgow, best Churchill ever in “The Crown”, apparently wants to play Trump in the series in the future).

The old ways of growth of the pie to create more wealth for all, even with redistribution, are going to be forced to be changed. Not overnight. Not realistic—unless a catastrophe occurs that we survive that forces it. But otherwise, we will, as humans always have in order to survive, devise new ways to create needed resources that are sustainable.

For those who have difficulty understanding the word “redistribution” which used to be generally thought of as a given of modern civilization, think of it as what does every child deserve to begin with. But it’s also the only way to create the necessary precondition to global human survival. When the great majority of the population in any situation are economically secure and have basic rights, vastly greater stability ensues. That’s the physics of history, or of your own life applied universally to cover both macro and micro perspectives. Of course, there will still be human horror, but the odds of the quantity and quality of it being diminished exponentially are “self-evident” as well as demonstrable. As everyone from Roosevelt to Eisenhower and beyond understood, redistribution is fundamental. Tax rates that took the majority of the income of the rich, who remained rich, and many other examples. A capitalist economy boomed while a socialist rulebook applied, if

you will. In process with many miles to go before we sleep, to be

sure, but you get the point. Then it reversed in the US, with global consequences as the world in objective reality became one place more and more linked in every way.

We have often referred to FDR requiring Churchill to agree to a post-war world in which there would be equality of peoples. The global historical marker of the requirement for equality was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the global successor to “All men are created equal”, “Liberté égalité fraternité”, ”We the people of South Africa” and many other markers of equality, democracy and human rights. An idealistic yet tough-minded Eleanor Roosevelt led the Declaration through the UN, forcing Stalin to abstain from in the unanimous vote. This marker will enter its 70th anniversary year in six months. That basic rights and needs morally start with children goes without saying. That it is also necessary to create a sustainable future for humanity is irrefutable as we have noted often.

Trump didn’t run as a member of a party. His message changed all the time in policy—he sounded like a right-wing reactionary or a left-wing radical depending on the issue and the moment. Mainly he sounded like the bomb-thrower who would shake everything up. He was the bomb that understandably outraged people were willing to throw—enough to elect him in the electoral system that everybody understood was the only game in town. To win in places that seemed incomprehensible—except not as a number of voices pointed out before the election and despite the polls.

To win a majority of Catholics after being the first US presidential candidate in history to be slammed as un-Christian by a popular pope.

To win a majority of white women, still by far the largest bloc of women voters, against who would have been the first woman president.

To win a third of Latino women. Just be with that for a while.

Of course, Trump isn’t delivering on the only part of the populist rhetoric that will have long-term political sustainability—significant improvement in the economic lives of a majority of people. He could have started quite differently and headed in that direction. Maybe he still could. But the worst aspect of what he did in the campaign and since, the truly uncivilized language and behavior, responded to both positively and overlooked by his voters at the time, is not sustainable. It appears that some of the popularity he had maintained with a minority of the electorate may be starting to fray because of this. One can only hope, that for everyone’s sake, he surprises once again, and changes.

In any event, again, it won’t be sustainable in the long run. In the short run, and for however long that short run is, it represents far more than him. It represents the culture which would allow this. The established order including most of the media may well call this out—but they of course created it with their own greed. The media is owned by the same interests in general that own everything else. News generally stopped being independent long ago and is based on entertainment return on the dollar modus operandi. There are exceptions, and many courageous journalists trying to bring truth within the confines of the above. But the larger play is what it is. The hope, as always, is that power is held among more than one group that will cooperate to a point but like all systems based on dysfunction and corruption will turn on each other at some point, and are always in competition for more money and power. So their darkness is the both our oppressor and their weakness.

But in the end, as the timeless wisdom in the newspaper comic section once so widely disseminated reminds, we have met the enemy, and he is us. We are the users. We are the colluders.

Concurrent with the growing age of inequality has been the growing age of barbarity, of dumbing down, of addiction to technology among the usual suspects, of violence, sexual objectification, narcissism times infinity, and in the absence of common values and meaning, a deadly alienated nihilism.

One of the primary things contributing to this is the addiction to image over substance. Cognitive Shutdown Disorder in the face of surges of dopamine responding to image. And many other ways of putting it.

Consider the following.

“After my Father’s presidency, television began to be a force in American politics, and by the end of the Eisenhower years, it was fast becoming the pre-eminent force. The new medium of television has now completely wiped out the necessity for ‘we the people’ to evaluate the mental capacity of our leadership and to understand the candidates’ different stands on issues and how they propose to lead us.”

-Elliott Roosevelt, Forward, “The Presidential Election Show” 

And now:

“And the issue here is the corruption of our public sphere. And that’s what Donald Trump does with these things. And it makes it harder for us, our country, to ever get back to normal, when these things are corrosive to just the way people talk to each other…And I hope, from the level of outrage, that we have a snap back. But the politics is broken up and down. And Trump may emerge from a reality TV world that is much more powerful than we think. And there is the prospect that this is where we are, which is an horrific thought.”

-David Brooks, PBS NewsHour

The Brooks quote is from last Friday, related to the Trump tweets of last week, and the context before.

Television is still co-king, along with the internet. They’ve become one digital platform. And reality TV is where it went. From where cometh the new leader. After being fired for his horrible behavior (remember that a billion light years ago?). By those who created it and arrogantly assumed it didn’t have the impact it did.

Still, let us take you back to a moment where the worst and best in humanity in bizarre ways converging with all the above components probably sealed where we are. And provides some hope for the future.

On Sunday, October 9, 2016, the second presidential debate was held.

Two days before, on Friday, the tape of Trump talking in the most vulgar terms about sexually assaulting women was released.

We had thought before this, that it was more likely Clinton would win, but it was quite possible that Trump would win, for the reasons remarked on here, before and to come.

On October 7, after the tape was released, we thought he was finished.

There was never a point when he could be explained to your children, and Clinton’s best ad showed children watching him.

Although one quick note on the larger issue of cultural feeding at the bottom of the behavioral sink. Why would most people care about Trump acting out horribly about a disability, when bullying an autistic woman in an ER with exactly the same mannerisms by the father-figure star, at the start of an episode of an animated TV series created by a Hollywood liberal, played to everything that children and adults were always taught to never do? Pedaled, Orwellian style, as satire and parody, for those who understood the words, or cared. In this and many other programs, constant vicious behavior, sexism, homophobia, racism and the full list of horrors. Before this era, it could never have aired. In this era, well, reality TV, etc. There are too may examples across genres and media platforms to enumerate.

Conservative or liberal or believe in nothing producers. Doesn’t matter. Liberal and conservative and believe in nothing consumers in brain degeneration mode, and kids in cognitive development impression mode, all laughing at the same blood on the floor. Or shouting for more.

Addiction to the convergence of dumbed-down nihilism constantly requires the next level of horrible. It really is as if no one has read a history book—and the narcissism and extreme denial that comes with all addiction, and at the end of all civilizations, is so great that as usual, we think we are the exception.

But on October 7, Trump had descended to a level revealed that was a tape too far for the great majority of people. This was revealed in polls that were not close. And in the response of his own party (not really) that went through cycles of trying to toss him to accepting the bitter pill the voters forced down their throats. In part because they spoke too little too late, and in part because they were representing the same establishment Clinton and the Democrats did.

But this was different. It came across as rape on tape. He was done. Noted in this context as a cultural and political reality, even in this impossible to imagine reality TV campaign. He was smarter than most gave him credit for in how he appealed to the rage through the culture he knew, and in the media age of twitter, which made the 30 second spot look like a Tolstoy novel. And in provoking the emotional outrage of a media that mimicked him and played to him and continued to provide the entertainment at the gladiator bowl, as the dollars poured in.

But this was a tape too far. He had never looked like he did in his video response of early Saturday morning. Like a hostage tape.

Except. In that hostage tape, where he showed that he knew he was almost certainly done, a kernel of what was next.

It is beyond ironic that Mika Brzezinski saw it instantly. She was horrified by the tapes, of course. But also something else. She repeated all this recently on Morning Joe (which she has co- anchored with Joe Scarborough, now her fiancé, for years). The terrible feeling she had when the tape came out. She made clear her support for Clinton. But the terrible feeling was that the tape was not the end, but would lead to something else.

On October 9, before the debate, Trump had a news conference with alleged victims of sexual assault or harassment by Bill Clinton. One he had settled with in her suit against him. Called losing in a civil suit. You pay, you admit, even when you deny. Plus, he admitted to the nation more than once, when forced by events, how he lied about related matters. And most people saw his behavior as it is now widely understood, as abuse of power in the ultimate sense by the most powerful person on earth. Quite apart from lying to a grand jury. Were political knives out for him and Hillary? Absolutely. But he created the problem. He survived impeachment, barely, because the economy was on its last burst a crack from his completion (started by Reagan) of the destruction of the rules FDR had put in place after the depression against the greed of the banks. The reckoning from that, including by what Bush and Obama did, and did not do, was Trump, among other things, as sources such as PBS Frontline have shown irrefutably.

When Trump put the women at the press conference in the front row—same front row as Bill Clinton—he looked as he has never been seen on video in public before. His eyes literally bulged.

Now he was in the hostage tape.

Hillary of course had been critiqued for decades, not just by her political opponents, but more importantly by her natural allies, by liberals and feminists, for her Bill-enabling and classic victim- attack. And then there were those who found ways to excuse her, also in the classic pattern of “I’m against this horror” as a mantra all their lives—until the rulebook goes to the bonfire when it’s one of yours. But even those who had been nauseated by Bill and by Hillary standing by her man who were otherwise natural allies, or at least compared to, who had found their way back to her—were suddenly confronted with all that time had not erased. The undecided sliver grew.

But this wasn’t all. It wasn’t quite enough to tip the scales back, to erase the Trump tape.

There was another woman at the press conference. Most people knew nothing about her. She was a child rape victim/survivor. Pointing the finger at Hillary Clinton for victimizing her further in the worst ways.

This was different. This was the one thing every decent human cringes at above all else.

The victim/survivor deserves only one thing. Compassion. There is no dispute about her being a victim. Whether she was used in this situation is irrelevant, as was any potential inconsistency in her story about Clinton, as the few stories in the media that followed this lightly tread on in an obviously Clinton-partisan way in most cases, trying to say that they respected the sensitivity of her being a child rape victim.

Clinton made clear and always has that she was a victim.

She was raped at 12 years old and the perpetrator was charged. Clinton was his lawyer. He plead to molesting rather than first degree rape and got off with very little jail time. Today, jail time would have been substantial and he would be a registered sex offender.

The victim/survivor’s issues with Clinton were that she had represented the perpetrator and helped him get off with far less than he should have (which put other children at risk), that she had laughed on tape about the case (which was widely broadcast at this point) and that she had attacked the victim/survivor in classic form.

First, Clinton didn’t want to defend the man. The judge told her to. Perpetrators, no matter how hideous, have a constitutional right to a defense. As it should be. In the context of the era, given that the man in freedom without being registered would be an absolute danger to children, the choices can start to look like they could include those confronted in the great movie “Sleepers.” Still, the man was unquestionably owed a defense under the constitution. The victim/survivor’s feelings were absolutely valid. But Clinton did what the legal system required, which as a concept if not always in practice is necessary to protect everyone’s legal due process rights.

Second, on Clinton laughing on tape. It came across or was portrayed on one level as laughing about the man passing a lie detector test.

Except when examined it seemed Clinton was laughing in the sense of nervous horror. But it came across terribly, so damage done. However, what she was saying is critically instructive. She said she lost her faith in lie detectors because of this. She was acknowledging the man raped the child. Everyone today knows a child rapist can usually lie and pass the test—any number of pathologies include lying without emotion and anyone can be taught techniques to beat the detector. And it measures emotion, so it’s not reliable about answers anyway. That’s why it’s not admissible.

Third, is the way that Clinton went after the victim. Guilty as charged. A proper defense does not mean questioning credibility on any of the classic bases victims are attacked in this manner which are a part of or result of their victimization, especially a child. Today, bad lawyers (strategically and morally) still try it sometimes, but it’s completely discredited. Predator’s lawyers, whether from family (the majority) or all the well-publicized church and other institutions that have harbored child rapists and molesters have had this as their go to defense. Public opinion has turned ferociously on them. You can’t do it anymore and pull it off—except sickeningly to the extent that the victim can’t take the trauma and so doesn’t come forward or withdraws. But looking like you’re going after the victim today is an almost certain path to ignominy—and further legal trouble.

The perpetrator of the victim/survivor above defended by Clinton got a plea deal because the prosecution lost the key evidence. Clinton obviously hated defending the man and was clear he was guilty. She made one terrible mistake in how she defended him. Defending him itself was not the problem.

So, the bottom line?

Being associated with traumatizing a child sex abuse victim/survivor was a different line crossed in public impression than any other. Added to the defense of Bill behavior in being accused by adult women of sexual assault or harassment (the latter never appropriate to conflate with the former by the way), added to his admitted behavior after lying and so on, added to her issues about emails and so on—changed the game.

Trump was back in the game. The tape of him was blunted. Even though numerous women accused Trump of assault or harassment. At least one has sued him since. He said he would sue them all. But even with the accusations and media flurry around this after the second debate, politically, the issue had been blunted, equalized. It may have kept more people from turning out for Clinton. Not as likely with Trump. The political and cultural narratives involved and the inter-relationship with other issues was completely different than it would have been if the focus had stayed on the Trump tape and following accusations. Trump had exactly the 48 hours and no more to respond as he did and blunt the issue before and during the debate. And he did, with perfect political timing. PBS Frontline focussed on the pivotal importance of this moment as well.

And you haven’t heard much about any of the above since. Ponder that imponderable.

Obviously, Russia, Comey (hurts, helps, hurts, helps, etc.) and many other things played a role and may have made the difference. The issues we have noted were going to explode one way or another in terms of the increasing gap in economic inequality and all other related issues.

But if Trump hadn’t showed up on October 9 with the women at the press conference and in the front row, and the new issue related to child sex abuse, then Hillary Clinton was more likely than not on track be president. And had she won, we believe that the odds are better than not (and that’s all, nothing close to certain) that she may have done what she was so bad at in so many other ways. Acknowledged the mistake more fully of how she dealt with the defense above. And that she would have been a better president on the very issue that may have turned the election.

But then the bombshells keep coming on this issue. As Donald Trump pulled the above off and stood on the debate stage famously or infamously circling Hillary Clinton, he was being sued for child rape.

This had been public for some time, but did you know it?

Why didn’t Clinton bring this up, during the campaign, or at the debate?

Where was the press on this?

The alleged victim withdrew her suit days before the election. The day she was scheduled to have a press conference about going forward. She withdrew, her lawyer said, out of fear. Her lawyer was the well-known and respected Lisa Bloom, the daughter of Gloria Allred, who is representing the woman suing Trump. The suit also involved billionaire convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as allegedly raping the plaintiff as a child with Trump.

Trump denied the above as did Epstein.

As Josh Gerstein reported in Politico on May 4:

“Trump has also indicated publicly he knew of Epstein’s interest in “younger” women, although he never suggested the financier crossed any legal lines. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,’’ Trump told New York Magazine back in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Epstein was charged by the US attorney in connection with child rape and trafficking. He plead on a lesser state charge of soliciting children in 2008, did jail time and had to register as a sex offender. He settled with numerous victim/survivors in civil suits. The US attorney who made the deal was current Trump Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta.

Gerstein also reported:

“Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) listed the ex-prosecutor’s actions in the matter as the first of several reasons she voted against him. ‘His handling of a case involving sex trafficking of underage girls when he was a U.S. attorney suggests he won’t put the interests of workers and everyday people ahead of the powerful and well-connected,’ Feinstein wrote. ‘Acosta cut Epstein a favorable deal without consulting or even informing the victims. As a longtime advocate for the rights of crime victims, I find this deeply disturbing.’”

And the list of those associated with Epstein goes on. Starting with Bill Clinton.

Yes, you read that correctly. Again from Gerstein’s article:

“Reince Priebus, then chairman of the Republican National Committee, was among Republicans who demanded a full accounting of the former president’s dealings with Epstein. ‘When you hang out with a guy who has a reputation like Jeffrey Epstein, multiple times, on private jets, on weekends, on trips, on places at least where it’s been reported not very good things happen, it would be good to know what our former president was doing, especially because it appears he’s going to be part of a campaign ticket on the other side of the aisle,’ told Bloomberg in 2015.”

Impossible to keep up with the hallucinogenic nature of this story. More accused. More inter-connected legal actions. The famous names and their connection to each other, for and against each other historically and currently, are increasingly mind-shattering as you peel the onion on this, as you must to be even a minimally informed citizen.

All kept basically quiet, still.

The Daily Beast had an article at one point, indicating this could bring down Trump and Clinton, before the nominations.

Not the obvious media storm this would be expected to create.

The Miami Herald had a good story on some of this related to Acosta. As did The Washington Post and a few others.

Gerstein’s article on May 4 is the most recent. It’s titled: “The one weird court case linking Trump, Clinton, and a billionaire pedophile.”

That’s because there’s still legal actions occurring all around the above. And a lot more to the story.

Gerstein’s article and it’s links require serious reading. Linked at bottom of Message of the Day. Or go to: politico.com/story/2017/05/04/jeffrey-epstein-trump-lawsuit- sex-trafficking-237983.

Also linked is the New York Times transcript of the October 9, 2016 presidential debate.

We close with the following:

On February 21, Jeremy Peters reported in The New York Times on the downfall of Milo Yiannopoulos, Trump supporter and gay provocateur, who, fitting the age, seemed more interested in provocation as an end in itself as opposed to standing for anything. He lost everything when he was discovered speaking favorably about child sex abuse.

Peters wrote:

“Mr. Yiannopoulos’s downfall this week — a dizzying 24 hours in which he lost his speaking slot at the pre-eminent conservative conference, had a book deal canceled and, on Tuesday, resigned under pressure from his job as a senior editor at Breitbart News — was a sign that in today’s political culture, when each day seems to bring a fresh lowering of the bar for decency and civility, some limits still remain.”

Examples on the left and the right and everywhere on the spectrum since continue to accumulate—that child sex abuse is the floor of limits keeps being proven.

That so many others limits have been smashed with incivility is more than concerning.

As is the remaining collusion around the increasingly powerful tidal wave against child sex abuse, whether in the family system, church, sports, schools, social services, government agencies, or systems at large, nationally and internationally.

(As a noteworthy aside, the pope who couldn’t get his flock to reject Trump had to deal with his right-hand advisor on finance, Cardinal Pell, being charged with child sex abuse last week in Australia, which has led the way in government turning the rocks over on institutional abuse. Pell is the highest ranking Vatican official ever criminally charged with child sex abuse. As we said many years ago, Pell should have been removed from ministry along with many bishops who covered-up abuse and made it possible. No end to the scandal until then. No future for the Church without this–which needs to change in other basic human rights, with full equality for women, LGBT and all people excluded from the power of the male patriarchy, to survive as well. Francis replaced the head of the CDF, which oversees sex abuse cases, in a day after the Pell charges, as the personification of the impediment to the tribunal Francis had called for as recommended by his commission to protect minors to bring bishops and counterparts in authority to justice. Two years ago when the tribunal was announced to the world, and for some time thereafter, real progress was possible. But this and other proposals were stalled. Now the new CDF replacement has also reportedly covered up child sex abuse–three strikes in three days–although a more complex story for another time. And a fourth today came with a top papal advisor’s home belonging to the CDF apparently involved in arrests news reports described as related to drug fueled gay orgies organized by a high-ranking priest, the secretary to the pope’s advisor. You just can’t make it up. The pope has gotten, and may get a little more time because of the overwhelming focus on Trump and related critical global issues. A little more time.)

The good news is that it keeps being proven it won’t last.

Senator Feinstein, noted in Gerstein’s article, has been at the forefront of government action on child sexual abuse. She sponsored new legislation to require reporting by adults and organizations related to youth sports and the Olympics after the scandals at USA Gymanstics and others. Here is an excerpt from the press release on her website with quotes from her and other prominent senators:

“Sexual abuse stays with victims their entire lives. Amateur athletic governing bodies, coaches, and personnel have a special obligation to do all they can to protect young athletes in their care,” said Senator Feinstein. “All allegations of sex abuse must be promptly reported to local or federal law enforcement. Otherwise, they may not be treated with the seriousness that’s required.”

“Sexual abuse is a heinous crime that must be eradicated in every corner of our society,” said Senator Collins. “I have long worked to prevent sexual assault and ensure that survivors have access to the resources and support they need. By requiring amateur athletic governing organizations to promptly report every allegation of sexual abuse to the proper authorities, this legislation will help survivors receive justice and protect more people from becoming victims.”

“Sexual abuse should never be tolerated. This bill helps to protect young athletes from such heinous crimes, and establishes a structure to help victims safely report abuses, which must then be relayed to the authorities,” said Senator Grassley. “It also requires oversight of the training facilities to ensure that policies preventing sexual abuse are being taken

seriously.”

“As a former prosecutor, I’ve seen firsthand how child sexual abuse can destroy lives. Amateur athletes deserve better protection from this terrible crime,” said Senator Klobuchar. “Our bipartisan legislation would help ensure that the governing organizations, coaches, and trainers who are closest to these young athletes are actively reporting sexual abuse crimes to law enforcement in order to punish abusers and prevent these acts from happening in the first place.”

“When parents entrust their children to these programs and coaches, there should be no doubt that they will be safe and protected from predators,” said Senator McCaskill. “What happened to these kids under the watch of USA Gymnastics coaches is sickening, and these predators need to be held fully accountable.”

“There is absolutely no room for sexual assault. This legislation safeguards our athletes by strengthening mandatory reporting of sexual assault allegations and requiring amateur sports organizations to develop and enforce policies to prevent these horrendous crimes from happening in the first place,” said Senator Ernst. “Combatting and preventing sexual assault is a bipartisan issue, and we must work to ensure there is zero tolerance for sexual assault in all facets of our society.”

“All children have the right to be protected from abuse and protected when reporting abuse. The revelations about USA Gymnastics turning a blind eye to our most vulnerable young athletes were heartbreaking,” said Senator Harris. “The systemic disregard by officials to report instances of abuse must be addressed. We must compel amateur athletic organizations to immediately report abusers to law-enforcement, and create protected environments for children to thrive. This legislation is a critical step forward.”

“This will force the U.S. Olympic Committee and their national athletic governing bodies to do something they should have been doing all along: developing and enforcing strict policies that protect athletes from sexual abuse,” said Senator Nelson. “It’s inexcusable that responsible adults looked the other way while terrible crimes were committed.”

“There should be no excuse for anyone—particularly those in positions of authority and who are entrusted with the safety and well-being of young athletes—to fail to report the sexual abuse of children and young adults,” said Senator Rubio. “Recent revelations about the USA Gymnastics program are deeply troubling, and it’s clear we must do more to strengthen protections for young athletes, ensure victims receive justice, and hold predators accountable.”

Sports, like politics, churches, celebrities, the world of the wealthy and so on, is rife with opportunity to abuse power. It is another place where our addictions converge. Frothing at the mouth about our favorite football teams, a spectacle of violence that parents are increasingly taking their children out of, another important sign of evolution.

Here’s a quote for the ages:

“I saw a lot of white men almost fight today. I do not think this is good.”

—Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt (Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain), also known as Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perce tribe, after watching a football game at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1903.

Independence Day in the US should always be accompanied by a remembrance of the genocide of native peoples. (And of slavery. And the disenfranchisement of women. And all the issues past and present that were or are a blight on the declaration of equality.)

Chief Joseph knew of what he spoke. US football, played by millions of children, teaches violence and has destroyed countless lives, starting directly through brain disease and early death as we increasingly discover the scope of.

And in the ultimate violence against children of sexual abuse, football has played a grotesque role.

The most famous case of this in recent years is Penn State. The infamous serial predator Jerry Sandusky is in prison for decades. The university president and two other Penn State officials were convicted of child endangerment this year. That’s evolution.

But only after the predictable response first. Of an entire community in denial, football over children, the incestuous family system dynamics infecting the entire system. This a real dynamic. Even the professionals and agencies that are supposed to protect children, often especially, are caught up in these dynamics, and become weaponized to destroy children. This is not opinion, nor even just direct experience, but fact testified to by scientific experts often and demonstrable in countless cases. All systems are susceptible to the same corruption and the same positive advances. That’s up to all of us, as with everything.

As we’ve noted before, perhaps the next marker of human evolution has been the recognition by the international community of the least evolved behavior of our species. The United Nations in partnership with the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and others stated last year that half of all children are abused, mainly physically, sexually or both. A commitment was made in the sustainable development goals to end this. The politics of the UN and it’s own despicable failures on abuse and cover-up reflect the same dynamics referenced above–it embodies the best and worst of all its members states, which is to say of humanity. International agreements through the UN such as on the rights of the child have and will matter. Its all a work in progress–again up to all of us.

Jerry Sandusky’s son, Matt, was abused by him as well. Reminding that horrible as the institutional abuse is, the majority of abuse is from the people a child most needs and should be able to most trust. Their parents. Their family.

Matt also exemplifies a choice for victims/survivors and all children when they become adults. Matt went one way, his brother, Jeffrey, went another. Matt called out the abuse and is dedicated to helping end it. His brother has now been charged with child sexual abuse on a number of counts. The same brother who with the rest of the family defended the indefensible with the infamous father. But it’s sadly all out of the child sexual abuse playbook. When he told the truth, his family cut Matt off. Predators and enablers in families, or anywhere, will punish or reward based on what they think the result will be. Try to lure them back, punish them, back and forth. If they don’t go along or get lured back, and proceed with recovery, victims/survivors obviously need to have no contact with predators, enablers or others who re-vicitmize them, to protect themselves from further abuse and their ongoing recovery.

“Sexual abuse of children is happening” Matt Sandusky told an audience last Thursday gathered to support ending child sex abuse.

The following is from “Matt Sandusky on coming forward with child sexual abuse, ‘My pain is my gift'”, by Chrisitne Vendel from Penn Live:

“We have to decide how are we going to stop it,” he said. “How big is your circle (of protection?) Would you protect your children? Your neighbor’s children?”

Victims and survivors of child sexual abuse need to be heard and believed, Sandusky said.

Sandusky knows how hard it is for victims to come forward…I’ve experienced public shaming, public attacks,” he said. “I’ve seen the ugliest abuse, people sitting behind computer screens…making fun of a man abused as a young boy.”

Still, Sandusky said victims need to “do it. It’s going to be hard but it’s the only way to overcome what you’re going through.”…Even then, he only disclosed a small amount of the abuse to the attorney general’s office at first, contradicting his earlier grand jury testimony that denied abuse. Expecting victims to immediately relay every single bit of abuse that has ever happened to them is not realistic, Sandusky said.

In Sandusky’s case, the abuse started when he was 8 years old, and came on the heels of a dysfunctional upbringing that included violence and abuse at the hands of his biological father…Once Matt Sandusky came forward, he said his family immediately turned on him. They haven’t spoken to him since.

One of Matt’s brothers, who was charged earlier this year with trying to entice two teenage girls into sex acts, showed up at one of his speeches last year he said, with Dottie Sandusky, Jerry’s wife.

“They thought I would be afraid to speak,” he said of the appearance in Lewisburg. “It did create some anxiety it was a rough one to get to.”

But Matt Sandusky said he was glad he pushed through and spoke at the event.

“I would look her directly in the eyes and tell her what her husband had done to me and that she had not done anything to support me. But she had done everything in her way to hurt me.”

After the lecture, two women and a 5-year-old boy appeared back stage. They said the boy had been abused, and the boy relayed the shocking news that an older boy on his school bus had been putting his hands down his pants every morning and afternoon and squeezing until the younger boy cried.”

The women then told Sandusky that they had never heard those details before.

“We knew something was happening,” they told Sandusky, “but we didn’t know exactly what was happening.”

Sandusky said his goal every day is to ease the pain of at least one person. That’s what’s behind his speaking tour and the nonprofit he started, Peaceful Hearts.

“The pain I’ve experienced has got to be worth something” he said. “My pain is my gift.”

There’s wisdom and inspiration for us all, a message of true independence. Of living the only meaningful life, turning our suffering into a gift to stop the unnecessary suffering of others, starting with children.

Declarations of Independence and equality and universal human rights mean nothing if they don’t mean this.