The Evil That Men Do.

Victim number 7 has emerged in the Bill Conlin child sex abuse case, and victim number 12 in the Sandusky case.  I guess we're supposed to be shocked and appalled, but I'd guess that we've heard from maybe ten percent of the potential victims.

This isn't like trying Sushi or skydiving.  You don't do it once and say, "OK, I got that out of my system."  It's not a Bucket List item that gets checked off.  It's recidivist behavior, just like adult sex.  It's perverted potato chips.

On the grand scale of human behavior, I understand sex between consenting adults.  I even understand it between adults of the same sex, because we have opposable thumbs and reasoned thought.  But, when it comes to fondling 7-year old boys, that's on Pluto. People on Neptune are laughing at them.  "Wow, we like a lot of strange shit, but we aren't that bad."

I can't figure out what climactic sexual thrill is derived from putting your hand in a kid's pants.  But that's me.  I'm on Mars.

I wonder if at least some of it comes from our supressed sexuality.  We resist talking about sex with kids because they are supposedly too young to understand.  The problem with that is that they don't know the difference between what is appropriate and inappropriate.  They know that stealing is wrong and that they shouldn't lie - we have no problem telling them that.  But when it comes to their sexuality (which they will carry with them forever) we keep the "birds and bees" discussion until we feel that they're ready for it.  And even then, it is approached by many with all the anticipation of a root canal.

That is never going to change.  Our repressed feelings about sex and our bodies is bred throughout generations.  We're a little better at it now than our ancestors, but most of it is confined to telling dirty jokes and saying "fuck" in front of people.  There isn't a lot of frank talk about what really makes us tick.  We're just at the front of a societal awakening on homosexuality and what rights we feel they are entitled, which is to say all of them - but that is another matter.

For now, we are confined to our pre-conceived notion of what constitutes normal behavior and when and where it should occur.  That's fine, but at some point you may be faced with the difficult task of explaining why Uncle Bob shouldn't show your 12-year old son his penis.

For now, we choose to say nothing.