Quote Originally Posted by mickey View Post
Hi curiositycat and welcome to the forum,

It was not my intention to set you up as an authority to the DeMaria situation. Your writings offered more as to the dynamics of one of the events. Though I did set up the link to your site, I felt it important to use the word "unofficial". My concern was/is the witchhunt mentality that the media has with this situation.

Regardless of the outcome, I know it has to be a very tough time for all parties involved.

mickey
Yup, I agree with you 100% Mickey, and I think you did exactly right both to post the link & to label it as "unofficial" (my husband and I actually had a good laugh about that when we found it--unofficial is an apt description of my blog--I hope never to be Official, lol). It's a beautiful (and sometimes scary) aspect of our wired world that we can instantly access so many different takes and pieces of information on events as they are unfolding, and I never think it's a bad thing to post links that shed new light or even just let folks in on what other people are thinking and saying about something. And far be it from me to complain about new traffic to my blog! Ha ha!

Anyway, as a result of the link, I saw a spike in traffic to my blog and then people started contacting me with comments and questions (nothing wrong there, either--just a natural result--in fact, it was heartening to learn that so many people care so deeply). It just felt right at that point to redirect attention back to this forum, which feels like the better place for this discussion.

So definitely no criticism of you.

The events have already had far-reaching consequences and of course they are not done unfolding yet. I feel for those closest to everything. And I fear for the future of our society--any way you look at it, things are pretty screwed up.

And part of the screwed-up-ness of it is how scary & emotional it is to talk about it. I posted my gut reaction in the entry linked to by Mickey, and then someone sent me a link to a news story that seemed to lend more credence to the accusations, and then I got scared and thought, geez, what if he really is guilty, and then I got worried that I'm as bad as anyone else leaping to conclusions about him, and ... geez, it just gets so confusing and wound up.

For a long time, my husband and I have had a policy that he NEVER hires a female babysitter in my absence, I ALWAYS drive female babysitters home, and he doesn't even tutor our neighbor's daughter unless I am in the room with them. This is not out of any fear that he, my beloved and honorable husband, would ever do anything inappropriate, but rather out of fear that he might be *accused* of anything inappropriate.

How sad is that? And yet, it is the world we appear to live in. I was SHOCKED to hear that someone could actually be accused of sexual impropriety in a room full of other adults and children... I mean, is it really to the point that men can't even come into contact with a girl in public, in a lighted room, without accusations rolling forth? Or is it that we've come to a point where a revered, established, respected man actually will commit such an atrocity in a lighted room full of adults?

Scary stuff. I sure as heck hope, and still believe, that he is innocent. But if he is, in some ways that is a sadder commentary for our society as a whole than the contrary would be. Gosh, what a mess.