The real issue

To the editor:

It’s been six weeks since an editorial first approached a subject that has too long gone unaddressed in town: sexual abuse of children.

There has been ample opportunity for the community to speak out, but what we’ve seen instead is a group of folks repeatedly preaching about paint on a street and how they are attempting to “protect each other from harm,” as suggested by Brendan Kraus.

It appears to some that what Kraus is “protecting” is his prejudice against his lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered neighbors while expecting his neighbors to respect his prejudice.

Apparently there are folks who still believe you can “pray away the gay,” but time has proven that it just ain’t so. And just to set the record straight, Kraus’s comment that the LGBT lifestyle is a “disorder” is not true.

I could not agree more with Chuck Seifert: You don’t have to love the LGBT lifestyle. But God will decide who’s right and who isn’t, not some self-appointed spokesman for the Almighty who uses the cover of darkness to spread tar on what he judges unworthy.

It would seem that whoever performed that cowardly act would proudly take credit for what was done in the name of God. Others have penned letters in support of the prejudice expressed. They weren’t afraid. Why is the coward who did the tarring so afraid?

I don’t believe for one moment that while the coward was spreading tar, God was on-site supervising while Jesus was standing at his right, holding a flashlight.

This whole ordeal originated with a poorly regulated activity for students, with absolutely no guidelines to follow. No rules, know problems. And when problems arose, the majority on the school board chose to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Thank goodness Tim Young, Jeremiah Lange, and Jan Helmer had the wisdom to vote “No” on stopping painting. Putting in guidelines, as should have been done long ago, would have been a more adult way of handling the situation.

That leaves the unaddressed subject that started this letter. The rapes of our children may far surpass any transgressions against the gay community.

I’m compelled to ask, why are Kraus and Seifert standing by in deafening silence while the child rape epidemic has been continuing on an unfortunately regular basis?

In the past 2½ years, a 9-year-old, an 11-year-old, a 13-year-old, and a child younger than 14 have been raped or molested by five adults from Marion, yet not one word of opposition or condemnation has been uttered.

As a child advocate, I don’t understand, and I don’t believe God does, either.

Kids are the ones paying a heavy price for the hardness in some of your hearts and the short-sightedness in some of your actions. Not only are your kids watching, but so are those whom you want to attract to town.

It’s time people start showing love and concern as Jesus would instead of the hate and incompetence we’ve witnessed from a few.

Roger Schwab, Manhattan