A Breach of Trust

                               A Breach of Trust    

I read the current news accounts, about f the Olympic physician abusing his young patients, and am appalled. How could this type of horrendous behavior been allowed to go on for so long? Surely some person in authority must have listened to the plaintive complaints of these innocents and acted on them. I have tried to wrap my head around the enormity of these criminal actions and the abuses that generated the whole “Me too” movement. I have a difficult time understanding both the acts and the perpetrators. I certainly understand the outrage of the victimized, especially the minor children. Their plight not only makes me angry. It makes me wish I had a shot at dealing with some of these swine, personally. In the working- class neighborhood, that I grew up in, we could not even imagine taking advantage of a woman like that. And thoughts of abusing children were so repugnant that the concept was never even mentioned. Our upbringing in Catholic schools reigned in our behavior pretty tightly.  Perhaps our lowly stations, in the financial scheme of things, meant that few of us held any power over others or were in a position to threaten any one’s livelihood or anything else.

        But, it was more than that. We possessed an almost medieval, chivalric code of honor. Women were held on the highest pedestal. Our mothers, our sisters, and all other females in our life, were held in an almost mystical regard. Anyone speaking ill of them, or in any way threatening them, was in for a good thrashing by the rest of us. No one hit or injured a woman in any way and got away with it. Not amongst any of us, anyways. That may seem simplistic now, in light of the things we are hearing, but it was how we felt then. Of course, it was a form of classist sexism, one ingrained in the working-class culture. But it was inherently reverential to the female of the species.

      I can say with certainty that I never knew any male, past or present, who was what we now identify as a predator, who victimized women. Perhaps, I had blinders on and did not see or sense the actions of those around me. Even in bar rooms and locker rooms, the conversation could be inherently and highly speculative, regarding physical relations with the aforementioned gender. But, bawdy as it was, there was never any reference to physical abuse of any nature. I think that we then could not even conceive of anyone acting in the awful manner, that we now hear so much of. Even in college, when we read novels like “Sister Carrie,” where the story line detailed how the working-class poor were victimized by the rich.  We sort of understood that it was a class type of thing, that only the rich and powerful were guilty of. And like Royalty of old, they got whatever they wanted from those lesser beings around them around them, regardless of the consequences. Even in the breakout television series “Peyton Place,” the concept of victimization was only whispered about.  And now, is it finally a function of when the working class got elevated to the positions of power, that they acted just as badly? Is that what prompted such awful behavior? I wonder.

          The notion of male domination and victimization of women goes back to the dawn of time. In our own country, we read guarded accounts of such behavior, involving slave owners and their subjects. The whole sexual slave trade was not even on the horizon of our most distant thoughts. Absolute power, in the words of British Lord Acton, does seem to corrupt absolutely.

         The courage and determination of these women to come forward, and point the finger at their abusers, is admirable. Like most whistle blowers, they face the scorn and abuse from those who don’t like anyone to rock the boat. Bill Cosby, Penn State, Harvey Weinstein, Olympic, gymnastic training, and a host of other awful situations, detail horrendous abusive practices by people who had power over others and acted badly. Bless these courageous people for coming forward.

         The damn has at least now broken. Predators, like child molesters and wife beaters, always fear exposure to the light of day. The spotlight is on them now.  Hopefully, the result, of these strong women coming forward, will be that many thousands of their sisters who come after them will not suffer as they did, in silence and shame. They are truly great Americans who deserve our admiration.

                                             -30-

                                       (767 words)

                                    Joseph Xavier Martin