Today I was listening on Pugs and Kelly's Midday show, to a discussion about registered sex offenders. Kelly was saying that she thinks these RSOs need to have a sticker in the window of their home, to let people know that an RSO lives inside. One of her points was, people have to post signs that say "Beware of Dog", shouldn't we have to do the same for people who are dangerous?
While I do agree with this in some respects, I do think it would create an interesting precedent. It could really pave the way for people who are accused of all sorts of things, to be publicly humiliated on a daily basis. These days, with the frequency of lawsuits over all sorts of ridiculous offenses, I wouldn't put it past the AMerican people to demand labeling of every kind of public offender, in no time at all... For example, those who are offended by Christians, could create some type of drama resulting in everyone who is a Christian, wearing some fish sticker on their house or something... You get my point.
For those of us with children, I do think we are owed an awareness of where and who these people are... Which is what the "registered sex offender system" is for. How far do we take this thing before we start eliminating people's basic rights, not to mention the fact that we are all humans... we all make mistakes, errors, and misjudgments... And there are many, many, many times when people are wrongly accused and wrongly convicted, perhaps because of the fact that the "system" has made it so easy to get away with taking a personal offense to an ungodly level. We all know the story about the people who sued McDonalds for making them fat, and actually won. Would you have ever thought something like that would or could really happen?!?!
Having said all this, I believe that punishment for an RSO could not ever be good enough. And if the labels were to stop at RSOs and go no further, I would absolutely be for it. For someone to harm a child in any way is such an mind-blowing, inhumane, horrible, and repulsive act of unbelievable violence. And no decent, worthwhile person could ever do something so unforgiveable... Besides the act itself being harmful, the resulting lifelong psychological damage is often unbearable... I guess, like I said, I'm in agreement with this idea in many respects. But, where would it stop? Who would use this idea to further their own personal vendetta?! Probably a lot of people.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where these people exist, and live, and continue to do the things they do. And, no matter where they live, or where we iive, there will always be a threat. Which, in my opinion, is why the best thing we can do, is to remain informed, caring, and involved parents. Parents who educate their children outside of school... who spend time with them, and teach them how to live and how to treat others, how to respect themselves, and to have a HEALTHY amount of fear. Enough for them to know they have to draw boundaries, keep and respect their boundaries as well as others'... To know that walking in the dark past midnight is not a good idea...
And just enough fear to be aware that they need their mommies. =)
Anyways, just thinking out loud.
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