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Spotlight<\/em>, Film Independent Spirit Awards, February 27, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The seasonal equinox occurred today at 0154 UTC, with seasons changing from summer to fall in the Northern Hemisphere and from winter to spring in the Southern Hemisphere. The harvest moon is tomorrow in the north.<\/p>\n We had planned a continued installment of our reflections. However, that will wait.<\/p>\n There are also many issues of critical importance occurring right now, However, they too will wait. Numerous issues are at critical junctures that will play out further in unknown ways as we write.<\/p>\n We return today to a post from a year ago that resonates in a number of ways right now and is ripe for revisiting during its anniversary this month.<\/p>\n Yesterday, one of the writers, Lisa Blume, attended the memorial service for A.W. Richard Sipe in San Diego. Just over a year ago, when they talked at length in person, he was deeply empathetic and supportive of her in her personal journey and work. He has been admired by us for many years in his landmark work on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n He is probably best known to the general public today from the movie Spotlight<\/em>, in which he is the voice in the speakerphone informing the Boston Globe reporters of his astonishing research. This device worked spectacularly well in the movie. It was an illustration of a substantial amount of interaction between Richard and the Spotlight team.<\/p>\n Mike Rezendes, a key member of the Spotlight team that broke the story of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Boston, has spoken of Richard\u2019s importance often in various venues. He was one of a number of people Lisa saw and talked with yesterday at the service, who have worked on the issue since the Spotlight investigation, or before, or since. We first met Mike at the Film Independent Spirit Awards where Spotlight <\/em>swept the awards the day before winning best picture at the Academy Awards. It is a statement of objective fact that his opening piece of the Spotlight series in The Boston Globe on January 6, 2002, Epiphany Sunday, was revolutionary in impact.<\/p>\n A year and a half ago, Richard Sipe observed, from the start, with precision, exactly<\/em> what was occurring in the child sex abuse scandal related to the Mayor of Seattle that had just surfaced in an ongoing Seattle Times investigative work. This story, which played out until the mayor\u2019s resignation a year ago September, was the subject of our post then.<\/p>\n It was a remarkable convergence of issues. Our observations occurred just before the Me Too movement started, the next cascade of the revelations on child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, USA gymnastics and many other institutions, including major aid organizations in the developing world and the UN itself, and the larger issue throughout society. And as always, the relationship of power in all its dimensions, denial and enabling to it all.<\/p>\n One of the great tragedies that occurred after the post below was the death by drug overdose of the initial accuser of the mayor of sexually abusing him as a child.<\/p>\n The post speaks for itself. There are no links from the initial post, which, as explained previously, was our practice for a purpose at the time, and sometimes still is. If you are interested in seeing and reading any or all source material, its easily searched:<\/p>\n Updated. 9.15.17:<\/p>\n Yesterday, the Belfast Telegraph reported \u201cAmnesty International\u201d is asking Northern Ireland \u201cto examine police records to see if any allegations have been made here against a US politician at the centre of historic child sex abuse claims.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSeattle Mayor Ed Murray, who resigned yesterday after a fifth sex abuse allegation was made against him, worked with children in a peaceline project in Belfast at the height of the Troubles.\u201d<\/p>\n Amnesty International. When has this happened? With a political leader half way across the world?<\/p>\n Further updates follow in the original post below.<\/p>\n 9.12.17<\/p>\n A thunderstorm that started in Seattle five months ago hit its apex today with a final bolt of lightning ending it.<\/p>\n Well, ending it on one level.<\/p>\n Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is resigning because of five or more allegations of child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n The Seattle Times headline \u201cMurray Resigns\u201d across the entire top of the paper (online tonight, in print tomorrow) was one of the largest and boldest seen in a long time.<\/p>\n Even those who had held back from demanding resignation or hedged in any way on the issue came down on Murray with full force.<\/p>\n On April 6, the day the US strikes on Syria in retaliation for using chemical weapons occurred, we noted that the second headline on NPR and elsewhere was the mayor of Seattle, Ed Murray, being accused of child sexual abuse. He was being sued by the victim.<\/p>\n In the normal universe, he would have been gone that day. It\u2019s not a situation in which one politically stays, and obviously not functionally, even if it was that rare case of child sexual abuse being asserted that wasn\u2019t accurate.<\/p>\n Murray stayed. And said he would run for re-election as planned. The primary campaign was already underway.<\/p>\n Two more accusers of child rape and molestation by him, one his former foster child.<\/p>\n Nothing changes.<\/p>\n A fourth.<\/p>\n Murray announced he would not run for re-election. But he would not heed increasing calls for resignation.<\/p>\n Then today, a fifth victim comes forward, Murray\u2019s cousin. And the added allegation that he had abused another boy at a Catholic group home.<\/p>\n And today, Mayor Murray announced that he will resign tomorrow.<\/p>\n Murray continued to deny everything alleged by everyone.<\/p>\n But his behavior from the start had been out of the predator handbook in attacking the victims.<\/p>\n His lawyers acted like the worst cases in families, churches and every situation now known like breathing they are so familiar. We noted long ago and again recently how everyone knows this is the one thing you can\u2019t do anymore\u2013although the desperate still try in the hope they will scare the victims away.<\/p>\n It had the opposite effect.<\/p>\n Before continuing, we need to make some things clear.<\/p>\n Normally we don\u2019t talk about who we personally support politically in the context of the constitutionally critical secret ballot and in the context of our work. We comment extensively on leaders and policy and have been highly critical or supportive based on policy and character in the context of public interest issues.<\/p>\n But we need to reveal more in this situation in the greater interest of the issues we address here. The principals of World Campaign personally supported Murray enthusiastically when he ran for Mayor four years ago.<\/p>\n We stood with him as Mayor-elect in support of Catholic high school students walking out of classes en-masse protesting the firing of a gay vice-principal for marrying his husband at the headquarters of the Catholic Archdiocese in Seattle.<\/p>\n Murray was not distinctively different than his predecessor in policy, but the very fact of his being the first openly gay mayor who had been a major political player in supporting the successful effort for marriage equality was a human rights plus that put him over the top for us.<\/p>\n His predecessor supported the same things and was even endorsed over Murray by some with these interests at the top of their priorities. However, as with all Seattle mayors for some time, the previous mayor was essentially an establishment mayor (even though he ran in the recent primary again as anti- establishment, unsuccessfully, as this turf was more persuasively occupied by others.) Being one of the most liberal cities in the US for decades, Seattle has been a leader in LGBTQ rights, and the human rights move forward represented by Murray as a gay mayor on the heels of the marriage equality victory had meaning as a distinction. He won, barely. Even though he soon proved to be more or less what all mayors have been for some time, the old refrain: \u201cMeet the new boss, same as the old boss.\u201d<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean that he and others haven\u2019t done good things. We\u2019ve worked with some doing some of these good things. But Seattle is in perhaps the worst inequality and housing crisis in the country, or is at least a perfect representation of the contradiction in an uber-liberal place between the calls for equality and the harsh reality of inequality.<\/p>\n But more on that later. Back to the point now. The ultimate expression of inequality and abuse of power is always in the abuse of children.<\/p>\n The Seattle Times did an outstanding job on this story.<\/p>\n It began with the focus on a lawsuit brought against Murray.<\/p>\n It should be noted right away that reporting beyond the Times on a critical aspect of this suit was often worse than abysmal\u2013 still today in the likes of CNN and The Washington Post. After Murray decided to withdraw from the race, the suit was withdrawn, with the stated intention of re-filing after the election. Standard fare for many reasons. Meanwhile, another suit was filed by the same plaintiff against the city for related reasons.<\/p>\n None of this was in reports that just said the suit was dropped. At a point that seems like eons ago now, before Murray was buried by the tsunami since, he tried to say he had been vindicated by the suit being dropped, also saying nothing about the reasons or intent to refile. Of course, it wouldn\u2019t have vindicated him anyway.<\/p>\n He was savaged by anyone with a conscience for his attacks on the vulnerabilities of the victim.<\/p>\n Make that victims.<\/p>\n Two others from the start, including his foster son, who called him the \u201conly parent\u201d he ever had.<\/p>\n On day two, literally, Richard Sipe nailed it. One of the authors of this post had the privilege of talking in depth with him recently at a conference in Washington, D.C., on the importance of survivors telling their stories. If you don\u2019t know who Sipe is, go read-up. He\u2019s the voice in the speakerphone at the Boston Globe in last year\u2019s best picture Oscar-winner, Spotlight<\/em>. If you haven\u2019t seen it, stop reading, look at it on demand, online, etc., then come back.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the Times on day two:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the pattern,\u201d said Richard Sipe, a former priest who has written and testified extensively about sexual abuse in the Catholic church. \u201cAll the elements are there.\u201d<\/p>\n The alleged victims \u2014 one the child of crack addicts, the other two living in a center for troubled youth where they said Murray worked \u2014 were vulnerable people, Sipe observed. And Murray is accused of developing a relationship with them by offering help.<\/p>\n In Catholic church abuse cases, Sipe said, priests often picked out kids who needed support or affection, sometimes moving in after a father died. \u201cI\u2019ll be your father now,\u201d he said a priest might say.<\/p>\n The foster son abuse would be virtual incest and today\u2019s nail in the coffin was a family member. It\u2019s a horrible convergence, incest, the single largest segment of child sexual abuse, and institutions like the Catholic Church. They feed each other.<\/p>\n Oh, and Murray is Catholic, who apparently went to seminary when the program in the Seattle archdiocese was run by an admitted child-molesting priest and listed last year as one of the 77 child sex abusers by the Seattle archdiocese. Which doesn\u2019t mean anything happened in this regard directly or not. But it was and is a milieu from Archbishops to priests to the pews to the community of enabling and victimization. A documented and admitted reality from Seattle to Boston to virtually every diocese in the world.<\/p>\n Seattle is one of the least Catholic towns in the country, but still a significant slice of the population with over-sized political power (for another minute before the millennials complete the departure unless radical change happens asap). But the core of Catholics in Seattle are mainly liberal, like the city overall. So, a sexist homophobic church largely embraces those who it rejects in terms of equality. The trying to change it from the inside aspect of this culture\u2014an increasingly unsupportable approach in terms of cognitive dissonance (which we understand well in working from Seattle to Rome\u2014the chances were there but history passes by the untaken strategic imperatives) was an important base for Murray. But as with other allies, the denial (as always) was intense.<\/p>\n The political economic power structure was grotesquely quiet at first. Now they have all turned, again as is always the case, after too much reality slammed them in the face.<\/p>\n Regardless of what happens short-term politically and otherwise, which many factors will impact, history will not treat them well. With the possible exception of those who authentically make amends, admitting their nonsensical attempts to square circles and convincingly showing their hearts are crushed by their enabling. It generally eludes those who need to do so that it\u2019s to their benefit as well to do this, without hedging, until reality and history force it.<\/p>\n As always, the survivors, who should never have to be, were and are at the forefront of requiring accountability. Only their courage makes this possible.<\/p>\n And to the great credit of the LGBTQ commission of the city itself, (with a number of members appointed by Murray), it eloquently called Murray, and everyone, to accountability.<\/p>\n Resign, they said, and stop this nonsensical, outrageous and dangerous rhetoric, dangerous to human rights and equality, and especially dangerous to children and survivors. With two city council members and most of the mayoral candidates agreeing. And supported by groups such as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which the principals of Word Campaign, as individuals, appeared with in support of the above before the city council.<\/p>\n We need to make a couple of obvious points that some people actually managed to obscure in 2017 for a minute.<\/p>\n Now, everybody says how unspeakable this has been and no one is above the law and on and on, in contradiction in some cases to previous positions.<\/p>\n Murray could never be charged criminally now because of statutes of limitations, which is why the need for SOL reform is so great and has been gaining momentum in the US.<\/p>\n But one would still hear the periodic innocent until proven guilty, etc., remark. Always an absurd one-liner reserved for the intellectually lazy or consciously misdirecting.<\/p>\n In a criminal context, guilty has a statutory meaning. One can be found \u201cnot-guilty\u201d in this context and it is absolutely not a statement of or proof of innocence. Any more than not being charged means innocent in any sense. Prosecutorial discretion in practice often means what will be difficult or not, or politically palatable or not, or up against how much money and power or not. Prosecutors infamously fail to prosecute when they should in such cases.<\/p>\n And in this case, in a very different environment on this issue in the 80\u2019s, in the one situation where a prosecutor was given evidence to consider, it was made clear by the prosecutor that the decision not to prosecute did not mean the victim was not believed.<\/p>\n The Seattle Times won a Pulitzer Prize for a story on the prosecutor\u2019s office failing to charge when the evidence from the police sexual assault unit was overwhelming, for instance.<\/p>\n They and the reporters on this story, much maligned by Murray, deserve one again now. Especially for being relentless investigators and finding the \u201cfinding\u201d from the Oregon Child Protective Services.<\/p>\n Murray was found to have sexually abused his foster son. This finding is by the entity legally responsible for determining whether an adult can be around children or can be a parent, guardian, or foster parent. Murray still cannot today be a foster parent in Oregon.<\/p>\n Anyone familiar with the history of CPS throughout the nation knows that the record on protecting children is often hideous and the tendency is toward not making a finding of sexual abuse when it should happen (for many reasons that require a separate book), even though there are many fine social workers and exceptions where excellent work is done.<\/p>\n