There are many things that I am passionate about. Some are new passions, some have been dormant, and some are just born out of anger.
This post, is about a passion that was born out of anger and disgust.
In a word,
perverts.
I work at a television news station, and I hear terrible news everyday. Theft, murder, people being hit by cars, kidnapping, etc. These stories are painful to hear, see and realize that they are an everyday reality.
But one particular type of crime, one particular type of predator, shakes me to my core. It angers me in a way that I can't express with words, and as I sit here writing about it, I'm already displaying physical signs that the topic at hand stirs rage within me. I'm biting my lip, sighing, and shaking my head.
I'm speaking of sexual predators.
I like to think of myself, as a humanitarian, optimist where there should be no optimism, and a pacifist.
But when a person, selfishly, knowingly and continually damages the lives of others, especially children; the flower-child qualities that make me who I am, begin to fade, and quickly.
Not a victim myself, I have always been very, very passionate about this topic, and even in an early speech class in college, I debated on the use of chemical castration as a tool, if these pathetic excuses for human beings must be re-introduced into society.
Just yesterday, while sitting in the studio listening to the day's doom and gloom report, one story caught my attention. A man who lives locally, was recently arrested for repeatedly raping a young girl for several years. The girl is now 12 years old. In the news report, it was made known that several of the instances occurred while the girl spent the night at the freak's home.
In an effort to understand why this individual was in the young girl's life, and why she was allowed to spend the night, I began an online search to see if I could fill in the blanks myself.
Unfortunately, I didn't find what I was looking for, but what I did find was eye-opening, disturbing, yet powerful.
The man who had been or as I should say allegedly harming the young girl is Kelly McDermid.
In searching for him, I found a website that he, among other perverts were listed.
Not only did this website list pictures of these (insert expletive here) they also included a detailed news story about each sicko, and they're myspace page.
For me, it was so interesting to see how easily these people could blend into society, and especially an online society.
Unlike what many may subconsciously think, most of these demons didn't look like perverts.
Of course, some looked as if they had emerged from the Hills Have Eyes, but others (although they should have been donning the mark of the beast) looked like regular people. Some even looked ( its hard for me to say) attractive. Note: None of these devil-rats looked attractive to me, but they could easily be attractive to a young teenager, or young naive person looking for someone to talk to online.
Not only did they appear (aforementioned) some even seemed like the very antithesis of anything impure.
Many had pictures of family, and happy kids, some listed their religion, workplace, everything that would seem... normal.
With many of the men, (a couple were women) looking young and fresh, and their profiles often listing good jobs, spirituality, pictures of friends, etc. Who would ever have guessed that these "cute guys" as a teenage girl might say, ARE abusers, molesters, sodomists, and rapists?
My point is this, WAKE up people. Girls WAKE UP, parents wake up. It doesn't MATTER if they coach a soccer team; women- it doesn't MATTER if he is a school teacher and has 100 friends, it doesn't MATTER if he looks normal. Its doesn't MATTER if his page says he's a good person, or that he's a Christian, or that he's spiritual. It DOES NOT MATTER. No employee or college will EVER use your myspace page, or any other social networking sight as a reference, or to find out if you are a good employee.
You know why? Its not reliable, its not credible, it is a person's personal description or representation of THEMSELVES, or who they think they are, who they want to be, or what they want you to think they are. As I write this, I can hear a teenager telling her friend, or mother, "but he's not like that, he has a job, and he goes to this school, and he dresses nice, and he's cute, and he's nice to me..." I don't CARE. Its really time for people to wake up and realize that the internet is not a fantasy world, or a special place where special people gather to make lasting relationships. NO! The world is corrupt, people are corrupt, and corrupt people have computers.
Just like we have awareness on the street, in a store, in our cars, we need to have DOUBLE that awareness online.
In real life, our God-given senses do their best to protect us from harm. We're able to use our ears, our sight to see strange body language, and that overall protection that we carry with us that keeps us alert. Well when it comes to the internet, we don't have any of that. We don't have the option of seeing things the way they are, unedited, and un-retouched. We don't get to gather for ourselves through observation and intuition what a person is like.
What we do get, is a crafty creation that more often than not represents that person's most positive attributes, even if those attributes don't exist.
So if the internet takes away our senses, prevents us from seeing things the way they really are, then why do we let our guards down? Why are we so trusting?
The answer:
I don't know, and I don't care. But what I do know, is that this planet is FULL of predators who live everyday to do people harm. And abuse doesn't just happen to some people. It can happen to anyone, in any state, in any town, on any block, on any dirt road, anywhere.
If our legal system keeps doing what its doing, and placing these (expletive) back in society, back into our neighborhoods, then we can no longer rely on and trust the system alone to keep us safe.
We have to keep us safe. Its time to educate, be aware, be smart, and STOP meeting people on myspace. Its not worth it. Even if your itching to meet someone who seems super normal, and who you are convinced is your soul mate, remember a couple things... if you are 13, 14, 15, 16 even 21. Do you honestly think that you are going to meet the person you may spend the rest of your life with? At best, you could get a free cup of coffee and an awkward story to tell friends. But at worst, you could feel very awkward, not know how to leave, you may get stalked, attacked, raped, kidnapped, or killed.
It isn't worth it. Let's do what we can to gain control back over these monsters, lets protect ourselves and protect our children.
By the way, here is the website where you can see the names, news stories, and myspace pages of these criminals. If you do go, you will see, that anyone, can be a murderer or rapist.
http://forums.talkcity.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=tc-Revolution&nav=start&prettyurl=%2Ftc%2DRevolution
(Enter as a guest to bypass being a member if you do not wish to join.)
It isn't worth it. Let's do what we can to gain control back over these monsters, lets protect ourselves and protect our children.
By the way, here is the website where you can see the names, news stories, and myspace pages of these criminals. If you do go, you will see, that anyone, can be a murderer or rapist.
http://forums.talkcity.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=tc-Revolution&nav=start&prettyurl=%2Ftc%2DRevolution
(Enter as a guest to bypass being a member if you do not wish to join.)
