Time and Punishment – Is Eternity Long Enough?
Marie:
Before the sentencing of Larry Nassar, sports doctor for the young Olympic Gymnasts in 2018, two hundred and fifty victim statements came in. Ultimately, Nassar got up to two hundred and seventy five years jail time, longer than some of those convicted of terrorism, or war crimes.
Recently, an associate of Nassar’s who came under investigation for the same issues committed suicide before he had to face trial and probable imprisonment. His sentence = eternity. Is there something satisfying about this?
One of the longest stretches ever imposed was for rape of small children; Charles Robinson got 30,000 years. The judge made sure the sentence ran concurrently, so that there would never be any chance of parole. Thirty thousand years - it’s astounding, but sounds righteous, doesn’t it?
Janet:
The question ‘Is eternity enough?’ My response is “NO!”
Marie:
If I’m honest with myself, I have to say yes, there is something about a long stretch that has a ring of satisfaction to it. Do we hate them? Well, yes, we do. We might like to think that we are more evolved, but the hurt and anger is powerful, and can last as long, or longer than some of the sentences we mentioned. Ultimately, what we hate is the behavior. And what we rejoice in is it’s end.
Janet:
I think we do hate their behavior and rejoice in their jail time. I don’t agree with the assertion that we rejoice as if it’s the end. What kind of trust do we put in their words? Their behavior is a problem, and they don’t cease to be a problem when they get out early, after we put them away forever.
Marie:
I work on NOT hating them, for my own benefit. So I can breathe. So I can have a life. Function.
Janet:
The point of catching and getting long sentences is, it doesn’t happen enough. Why? Because judges don’t convict the perpetrators, the people we trust to protect, manage, teach, and love us. An established white man, in power is not convicted unless the prosecutor can hit them in the face with incontrovertible facts after years and years of compiling victim statements.
Not one person who raped me or harassed me at work EVER paid for the crime. When I reported one boss, who offered me the “bonus” of “punishment” sex, the police told me to “go with the flow.” He was wealthy, he knew people, he had more power than I did. There was no recourse.
What does it take to get a creep convicted? Ask the women who accused Cosby, Weinstein, or the aforementioned Nassar. It takes years and years.
I wonder how we learn to trust or, do we live knowing the next guy is the bad guy? Or is there a “naivete,” as by Liz Plank, author of “For The Love of Men: A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity,” calls it. Are we starved for good guys?
When I saw the article “How America fell for Andrew Cuomo’s ‘good guy’ performance,” written by Liz Plank, she notes,
There’s no term for the special sting of discovering that the man who convinced you he could assure your safety turns out to be dangerous himself.
Liz Plank, “How America fell for Andrew Cuomo’s ‘good guy’ performance’”
The Governor of New York was just that guy. In the face of a worldwide pandemic, Governor Cuomo was the shining example of a hero. I listened for him every day, wondering if he were the one who could gallantly pierce the fog of disinformation with the flaming arrow of truth. Then the women began to speak and the media heard them.
Marie:
This is a multi-layered, culturally inbred issue. The truth is—this smacks of rape culture. Roxanne Gay notes in her book “Not That Bad,” we live in a “culture” of when, not if, a woman will encounter some form of sexual violence. We trust the men who do it and then the men who excuse it—help cover it up.
Rape culture demands that women silence themselves, dishonor their intuitive boundaries, and disregard their own integrity.
Marie Posthumus, OSV Editor & Founder
I don’t think Governor Cuomo will do any jail time. Men like him seldom do. The story comes out, does its shaming, makes its headlines and media time, and then it fades away. Somewhere in our collective minds, we are all expecting that.
When will we stop accepting it? Let us know what you think in the comments below.