Reply #43: Fair question.

[H2O Man]

When I was employed in dealing with family violence, including child neglect & abuse, I focused on that. But it didn't keep me from being able to focus on other things as well. Those other things included a number of Native American issues.

When I was helping the DoJ and EPA with two Super Fund cases in federal court, and my nephew was viciously attacked by a racist hate gang (and left for dead), I was able to work on both (as well as being employed full-time).

Because I am quite aware that I am, at best, an average person, I am confident that the average person has these abilities.

I suspect that without exception, the librals and progressives on DU are opposed to the terrible violence that took Derrion Albert's life, and which maims and kills people in communities across America. In fact, the DU community would recognize anyone who attempted to justify that violence as a sick individual.

Many DUers also recognize anyone who attempts to justify an adult's drugging and raping a 13-year old as owning problemed thinking. My participation on the now infamous Polanski threads has been an attempt to address the larger issue of the sexual abuse of children by adults. It's something that, like violent hate crimes, I have a background in. Thus, over the years I've tended to post my thoughts on these and other, often related issues.

This is not because I'm a prude, or any of the other names that I was called yesterday, including Southerner, caveman, and member of a mob with a pitchfork. (Okay, I may be a caveman, in the most literal sense, but not in the manner the attempted insult was intended.) Not that many years ago, as I've noted before on this forum, a group of teenagers who I barely knew approached me.An 18-year old friend had been convicted of having sex with his 15-year old girlfriend. He was 2 years and less than a month older than her. He was literally given a life sentence, even though she initiated the sexual encounter, and he had no record other than one prior, when he was caught with a can of beer and a marijuana cigarette. The county judge, who rarely gave significant sentences for sex-related offenses, had apparently been reactive to this kid's being black, and the girl being white.

I reviewed all the court records, and interviewed the kid's court-appointed attorney. The facts were clear. I began corresponding with this kid, who was experiencing hell in state prison. I got a friend who, though he lives in another state, to assist on the case. My friend is a well-known civil rights attorney. Upon appeal, the kid was released from prison. Still, it took 14 months, and the experience damaged this guy.

I suppose that we all bring our own experiences and point of view here. Though my own is of no greater or lesser value than anyone else's, I hope that from time to time I can stimulate people to think about things, perhaps in a different way than they previously have. And, although I do not think that a high enough percentage of DUers are as active as they should be, I try to keep in mind Malcolm X's theory that inactive people have to think differently, before there is any chance of them acting differently. Make sense?