Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

So sorry for the Amish.......and Foley

Some days, human beings are too difficult to figure out. Maybe this goes with my thick-headedness, but who'd have known that some warped guy would take hostage ten little girls in a school and try to do away with them? This happened, yet, in the Amish Lancaster. The killer was not of the Amish, but obviously, a pervert and a psychopath.

I mean I can't fathom who'd want to hurt the Amish. When we were traveling in Lancaster county, I refused to go on a tour to see the Amish. It felt like I would be intruding. Also, they are not like some kind of a spectacle as in a circus or a zoo.

We, as a nation, have to learn to respect people and I mean, everybody. This last comment is an aside; however, we turn people who are slightly different than us into spectacles and I believe we expose them to a lot more harm. Of course, with all the crazies running berzerk in this country, we're all exposed, but when gentle people are harmed, it makes the pain even deeper.

Obviously, this killer is mentally sick and his family had nowhere to go. I always believed closing the state hospitals had been wrong. They were doing a service to the public. Why not open them again? At least, some people could be taken off the streets and could get some free help.

Human beings are not easy to decipher and even harder to love some days, but we can still keep trying.


My pain number two: Mark Foley.

This is the guy from my district. I voted for him. My husband and I met him, shook hands, talked. We found him to be very gentle, very dedicated, and very nice. How could we be so blind? How could the Republican Party, or any other Party, and anyone in the nation's capital city be so blind?

Being single is okay. Being gay is okay. Being in the public arena is okay. Plus, I am not so self-righteous as to think that nobody should make a mistake. We all make mistakes. I make tons of mistakes every day, but they are attention-deficit mistakes, unplanned mistakes, human mistakes.

In this case, not the mistake itself (only because I am not privy to all the details and neither would I go looking for them), but the hypocrisy surrounding it rattled my nerves.

Another thing that rattled my nerves are the talk show hosts on Fox news who claim that the relationship was consentual; therefore, Foley should not be blamed too much.

Excuse me? The kid was underage. The kid was working under the direction of a so-called adult. Moreover, the so-called adult was in a supervisor position, by which the kid could be intimidated. And the so-called adult headed the committee overseeing what could be done for child protection and working against internet stalking problems.

Well, when I vote, I always divide my ticket anyway, because I vote for the people, not their party. This time, the division may be bigger and I haven't missed a vote in my life.