Who Gets Forgiven?

I’m short on time so I’m ignoring the ongoing Obamacare hysteria, except to recommend this article by Jonathan Bernstein.

Instead, I want to write about this 74-year-old retired teacher who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting several female students under the age of 14. A whole lot of powerful people rushed to his defense, including (get this) Ken Starr. Yes, that Ken Starr.

Granted, all of the incidents we know about took place before 1986. And he’s 74 now. But having read what he admitted to have done, I wouldn’t trust him with so much as a potted cactus. The investigation was kicked off when one of his former victims found out he was substitute teaching at her daughter’s grade school.

And because he used to teach at some exclusive elite school he knows a lot of influential people, and they just can’t believe he deserves to be punished. They not only want his sentence commuted, but they want him to continue his community work, which includes working with children. As the article says, he is “liked by the parents of the children he didn’t sexually abuse.”

You’d think that the parents of this upscale children would be alarmed. However, it may be that they assume a real sexual predator would be some shifty-eyed lowlife in shiny polyester suits, not this perfectly respectable man they all know. Cognitive dissonance at its finest.