Finding Truth in Child Abuse

Summit writes most eloquently, but it’s so easy to accuse and much more difficult to be on the defensive. As to his accusing the defense attorneys of showing only a “few moments out of thousands of hours of videotape records,” I would like to ask, why not show all of the tapes in their entirety? The defense would love to have had that happen as it would be eminently clear how these stories got started and continued to grow. By the same token, Children’s Institute International has allowed the parents to see only a few well-chosen fragments of their child’s videotape interview.

Summit ends his article with, “Rather than decapitate the messenger, we might better take a second look at the message.” I concur; however, I would go a step further and ask how the message was extracted and how long it took to extract it.

I would further comment that we have an obligation to protect the innocent lives as well as those of the children. I pray that a better way can be implemented in the future to discover “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God.”

EVELINE E. HARMAN

Manhattan Beach