Posted on 03/10/2010 5:34:33 AM PST by Revelation 911
I have a son who is 25. He is an intern in a state legislature.
I thought of him yesterday afternoon when I read that Eric Massa is suspected of sexually groping several young men who worked on his congressional staff.
I thought that the victims in this matter were probably young men like my son, starting out in life, thrilled at the opportunity to serve and learn at the seat of power. They went to Washington to do something great.
And something evil was done to them.
They were violated, not just in body, but in mind and spirit.
And thinking about that, I felt guilty. Sick-to-my-stomach guilty. Wish-I-could-go-back-in-time-and-do-things-differently guilty.
Guilty because, though I knew almost four years ago of Eric Massa’s alleged penchant for sexually assaulting younger and subordinate males, I said nothing about it. Thinking I was doing the better thing, I didn’t report what I knew. I didn’t stop him.
Which makes me partially responsible for his new victims.
That’s what I thought about yesterday.
Shortly after Eric Massa came to New York to run for Congress, I was contacted by a former shipmate of his, a naval officer who told me that while Massa was in the Navy he made unwanted sexual advances on two lower-ranking male officers.
That was incendiary information and I sought to verify it. I was not able to contact the alleged victims. But I did find two more former Navy officers who had served with Massa and remembered hearing about the incidents, though they did not have any first-hand information.
They knew enough, however, to lead me to believe that the first officer was telling the truth and that his claims were genuine.
But I did not report the story.
The charges were almost 15 years old, Massa had a wife and two children at home, no formal complaints had ever been filed, I had no information of recent occurrences. I didn’t think it was pertinent to the political contest at hand.
And I don’t like scandal.
I will fight people on the issues, but I will not destroy them personally. I know what it is like to have your own bad choices put you on the front page. I know what it is like to be disgraced, and I know what that does to innocent family members.
And I am reluctant to do that to anyone.
So I was silent about Massa. I argued against his politics, I wrote about a court case he was involved in. But I didn’t write about his alleged sexual aggression and abuse.
I considered it from the standpoint of journalism, and I considered it from the standpoint of politics and personal considerations.
But I didn’t think about future victims.
It never occurred to me.
And unwittingly I protected Massa instead of protecting them.
And I knew better.
I have thought about this issue often, and written about it. About the importance of reporting sexual crimes, about the importance of speaking up if you are a victim. Reporting what was done to you is a way to keep others from facing what you have faced.
I have written that church and school leaders must never sweep abuse under the carpet, that they must root out criminal conduct so that innocent children are protected from it.
I know that many of these people don’t reform, and that they depend on silence and fear to allow them to continue to force themselves on victims.
I knew all that.
And I knew it from experience.
I was molested as a little boy, by a man who molested little boys before and after me. In an odd horror, my investigation of Eric Massa’s staff indicates that there is a good chance the man who molested me later molested someone who grew up to work for Eric Massa.
If someone molested before me had told, I would have been spared. If I had told, the staff member would have been spared.
That kind of eats at you.
And yet the real danger of Eric Massa never occurred to me. I kept my mouth shut. And Eric Massa got elected. And now it seems there are new victims.
And I feel like an unwitting accomplice.
Last night as I watched him on Glenn Beck, he had the bug eyes of a liar, the manic BS of a conman. He was as genuine as a knock-off purse.
But I wasn’t thinking about him.
I was thinking about the staffers, the ones the “Washington Post” said he essentially sexually assaulted. I thought of them as young men like my son, in Washington for a dream job, faced with a dispiriting evil.
A lot of attention has focused on Eric Massa and his writhing dance of deception.
But I choose to think about his alleged new victims, and the one who had the courage to say something. That young man, and another congressional staffer, did what many others of us have failed to do.
He stopped Eric Massa.
Not Eric Massa the congressman.
But Eric Massa the predator.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2010
poop floats to the top sometimes
It’s just sex. That’s the word we learned when Bill Clinton faced such charges after he’d used state troopers to force underlings into his hotel room to be commanded to “kiss it” or worse “put some ice on that” when raped.
Ted Kennedy was championed over such activity. 1,000 women. He was a “stud”. Even when he made a male-male-female sandwich with Chris Dodd and a waitress.
I think Beck had the most relevant question: does this effect us? Is this important? Or is Rangel more important? Is the socializing of our medical system more important?
I couldn’t care less that grown men interns and staffers were allegedly groped by their icky boss. (25 year old men are not boys and I would hope would have the guts to tell a male boss to keep his paws to himself.)
This story is a distraction and I don’t believe for a minute that Rahm & the boys didn’t ignite this story to distract from the ‘fundamental changing of America’. They think they can throw a sex story out to the masses and we’ll all look away from Health Care stories.
Instead of fretting about a creepy (now ex) Congressman we all need to stay focused on what’s importing: preserving American exceptionalism and our freedoms. Call your Congress-person today and let them know you want them to vote NO NO NO to the health care bill.
Did the writer really believe this? Would any of us encourage our children to run off and work for Harry and Nancy with the hopes of doing something "great"? Seriously?
The bigger question is why Demrat Party got him in. Do they choose those with weaknesses so as to manipulate them for political gain and to serve an agenda? Certainly looks like it; these are after all, the people who serve these rats the best.
Would offer they did not miscalculate the entire equasion here; only part of it, when it came to Massa.
All to say believe the Dems needs those with 'files' and had an active one going on Massa; and for a long time. Even in this case; the info leaked did not happen until the critical vote was denied.
No doubt they thought he would go easily into the night. While I loathe the tactics; and certainly Massa's proclivities; am happy to see the backfire on all of them.
A 25 year old man can’t fend for himself???? What, is he supposedly a virgin??
It just sounds ridiculous.
I’m sure the reason they took the curtains off the showers in the gym was that guys like Massa were using them for liasons
I have to disagree with Lonesberry. He did the right thing in not reporting this. If he felt so strongly about it, he should have worked harder to find the two naval men who actually were sexually harrassed by Massa. You can’t take the word of people who had no first hand knowledge of the incident and turn around and write a story on that, possibly ruining the man.
I’m no supporter of Massa. He may be a sexual predator and if he is it makes sense why he’s stepping down and not fighting this. I don’t believe the story he told Beck of why he’s stepping down. If your innocent of molestation charges you fight to the bitter end for your name.
The most interesting part of the Massa story is the Rahm Emmanuel incident in the shower. As Beck mentioned, if the incident is true as Massa has described it (and I don’t doubt that it is), Rhambo broke laws. As creepy as Massa is, the importance is the bullying by Rhambo (and by extension Obama) on these Congressmen. If it happened to him, it’s happened to other no creepy Congressmen who are not stepping out and talking about it.
I wonder how many would be left if we cleaned all the perverts and crooks out of D.C.?
What a nasty group that gets themselves elected to make our laws and spend our money!
WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa
Massa touched me! WWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Evidently JUST SAY NO
or
KNOCK IT OFF
has no place in the life of a staffer?
In Massa's case, the Machine used the allegations to get rid of him because of his vote on Obamacare.
If he had been a strong supporter of Obamacare, the Machine could just as easily have presented him as a victim and a saint.
It's not too late. If he should suddenly become a strong Obamacare supporter, the Machine could just as quickly make him a hero and a victim of circumstances or false allegations, deserving of sympathy and support. Such is their oily art.
Sleaze is no problem for Democrats. In fact they revel in it.
And part of their sleaze is the facility with which they can promote or destroy people, using 'most anything as a strategy.
This is nothing new.
What's scary is the millions of Americans out there who believe Democrat Propaganda like mindless robots and have let them seize the U.S. Government, with all its power and wealth and its nuclear arsenal.
Were it not for the Fools, the Scoundrels would not be empowered, but apparently there are more of them than there are of us.
Pray for our nation, but plan for the worst.
Goneril and Regan are running the country. And they're doing their best to silence Cordelia.
Hate to tell Bob this, but there is an identifiable contingent of “happy boys” who serve as Congressional pages every year. I used to live on Capital Hill and it was pretty plain that the Skippies were up for some real heavy politics. Just sayin. Mommas don’t let your babies grow up to be Congressional pages.
Or how bout kicking his @ss?
Massa seemed like someone who needs a couple of prescriptions and a lot of supervision.
Exactly what I would expect for a demonrat cogressthing from NY.
“This story is a distraction and I don’t believe for a minute that Rahm & the boys didn’t ignite this story to distract from the ‘fundamental changing of America’. They think they can throw a sex story out to the masses and we’ll all look away from Health Care stories.”
You are 100% right about this.
The homosexual molestion of boys is deadly serious. Men must take on protecting boys as women have taken on protecting girls from sexual manipulation and rape. It is not a game and boys are truly harmed by the shame, disrespect and aggression.
Be a hero. Stick up for and protect men and boys from homosexual aggression! Do not tolerate an ounce of sexual harassment or aggression in your presence. Report it and give support to the target.
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