Category Archives: Abuse of Power

February 16, 2012 · 1:00 am

Crimes Against Children

There are multiple stories of child abuse in the news, almost too painful to address.

Three children testified their grandfather denied them food and water, choked, and kicked them during a 19-mile hike in the Grand Canyon with temperatures over 100 degrees.

A two year old Wisconsin boy died after being thrown to the ground by his adult sitter. Another Wisconsin couple starved their daughter, allowing her to be molested from the age of ten by her brother. Child protective services were several times alerted, for all the good that did.

Here in Pennsylvania, Msgr. William Lynn is being charged with clerical abuse for his failure to turn multiple pedophile priests over to police.

We cannot alter these crimes, but we can bear witness to them and seek whatever redress is still possible. Our children deserve no less.

FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT:  http://www.alawyersprayers.com

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December 19, 2011 · 1:00 am

Darkness Rising

I do not pretend to be an oracle or prophet.  But the signs of the times suggest darkness is rising.

Since I last wrote, a billion dollars of client funds are said to have vanished in the MF Global collapse.  A Texas woman unable to qualify for food stamps has shot herself and her children. Overseas, a young woman in Pakistan was murdered defending herself against rape.  In Egypt, fundamentalist parties have won over 60% of the vote in parliamentary elections.

All this is not a reason to lose hope. Rather, it should be an alarm to men and women of good will everywhere – those reaching out a hand to help their neighbors, those working for peace and justice, and those fighting to protect the rights God gave all.

This is not a time to surrender.  This is a time to fight – not with bullets or bombs, but with kindness toward those of any faith or none, with truth whatever the personal cost, and with prayer.  Above all with prayer for there is a Power greater than our own.

FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT:  http://www.alawyersprayers.com

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November 28, 2011 · 1:00 am

Collusion

Sex scandals involving the Catholic Church, Penn State, and Syracuse University are all in the news.

Amid the chaos of allegations extending back decades, protestations of innocence, vociferous statements of support, incomplete earlier investigations, and now a secretly taped conversation, abuse victims and non-victims alike seek explanations.

The approach institutions all too often take in dealing with scandal serves as a reminder that favoring the supposed “good” of a group, over the good of the individual, is a dangerous business. That bargain can amount to outright collusion with evil, whatever the rationale may have been at the outset.

How then can we prevent future crimes against our children from taking place? Though we can strengthen reporting requirements and put other restrictions in place, there may not be a hard and fast answer to that question.

FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT:  http://www.alawyersprayers.com

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November 24, 2011 · 1:00 am

Laws Without Morals

Like the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, the Penn State abuse scandal has drawn national attention.

​Personal loyalties aside, most of us are outraged that those charged with the care of children chose to abandon the most vulnerable of such children in the face of evil.

​We teach our children to report abuse to a trustworthy adult…and report it to the next adult and the next, until someone responds. Here, apparently, no trustworthy adult could be found.

​Instead, the facts suggest the overriding concern by Penn State was not child welfare, but the reputation of the university, its coaches, and sports program.

​Those who facilitated child abuse by their silence and inaction would do well to review the university’s motto: “Laws without morals are in vain.”

FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT:  http://www.alawyersprayers.com

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