‘Disappointment’ Not Cause of Child Murders

Re “Burdening Kids With Innocence,” Commentary, Aug. 28:

As a mother of four now-grown children, I was astonished and disgusted by professor Jerry Griswold’s attempt to place the blame for pedophile killers not only on the “innocent” victims for being what they are (powerless, weak, dependent) but also on society for its natural desire to shelter its offspring from evil. And evil is what we are dealing with--pedophiles who take advantage of a smaller, weaker being to gratify desires that they either cannot or will not control.

When that lust is satisfied, the defenseless child is “silenced” because deep down, the killer knows that society abhors his behavior.

To say that the pedophile is “disappointed” because “innocence” was destroyed by the perpetrator’s very own actions is utter nonsense. How can parents protect their children when this kind of balderdash is considered serious scholarship by our universities and printed in our “serious” media? I wonder what Griswold would write if the body of his daughter or son was just dug up from under a concrete slab.

Ruth Biggar

Thousand Oaks

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I thank Griswold for his commentary. I would also add that, insofar as Jean Jacques Rousseau is concerned, the role of educator is not pleasant.

Rousseau, like Plato before him, identified as our primary goal the suppression of anger. Anger can be legitimate, as when Jesus cursed the fig tree that bore no fruit (in other words, it wasn’t doing its job).

Society will no doubt continue to market children, but we must all do our best to make sure that we look after the best interests of the individual children with whose care we have been entrusted.

Jeffrey Spisak

Los Angeles