Sunday, July 29, 2007

Finishing what another started; 'friends': over 300

...Had never been there before, only heard of it and thought what most everyone else does who hasn't been there. I was wrong.

Over time, found a number of members who advocate for children; name the topic, someone has a page devoted to it. Many of these people have had horrible things happen to their children as well. Last week it was discovered that four times as many registered offenders were found there compared to the number estimated or calculated even earlier this year (two months ago). Many of this last sweep may have been identified because of the 'watchdog' members. The site that has been assisting with the Dateline series is there, where those arrested on the show were also found.

Another TV morning feature regarding this week's sweep aptly pointed out that those ID'd were registered offenders using their real names: they'd already been arrested and convicted of these crimes. They were also quick to mention that if these are the number of those who will actually use their names post conviction and 'on the street' again, think of how many more there are who do not use their own names &/or have not been caught. Whoever did this to that little girl was witnessed by someone, in a ‘private’ place.

Think of the number still, in this country, where there are no witnesses and it happens repeatedly, sometimes for years. The last thing I would want to do particularly here is detail a major 'downer' that has been encountered. Again, grateful for the one who brought this up; accountability begins in one way by zero tolerance of whatever could lead to so many getting away with so much. Our 'contrast' must shine a broad and exposing light in as many places as we can.

http://sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070728/SHE0101/70728007/1973

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19939181/

[response by someone praising 'watchdog' group, saying they couldn't do the same]

Thank you; you're right, I couldn't either. We all have unique capacities, and I'm grateful for anyone having such strong feelings that lead them into taking positive action in order to protect others and prevent further harm. Since the last post, the story of the home invasion in Connecticut that wiped out an entire family was in the news again about the funerals; there was one survivor, now speaking through unbearable pain that we cannot go on 'as before'. ‘Wiped out’ simply means that no one in that family that includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins will ever be the same again; they are all now changed, and ‘life’ as they knew it is now permanently not like anything they had perhaps ever known before.

An accompanying article highlighted that now the residents are considering gun purchases: also not an appropriate solution. The issues that are the root causes cannot be addressed this way, though it's a 'logical' response. What is exemplified in our daily lives in the smallest ways speaks to our environment.

...We cannot go on as if bad things only happen to other people; with intentions that we have come to know, we may be less prone to tragedy, and fear serves no one. There are ways to be more than ‘spectators’ to Dateline, and still excel at what we each do best. We insure both our own well-being and that of others by living daily what we learn and can apply well respectively in our own unique ways, in what we act on and choose to exchange, with each other and in our communities. Bringing out the same in others in the ways we can and how those exchanges may cause others to choose of themselves to do more within the scope of their skills and talents comprise these possibilities. Now, take the last sentence and look at it in the negative; this is how the ‘other’ happens. This is where contrast comes in.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20015078