(no subject)
Aug. 16th, 2012 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickDear Mr. Sandusky:
I am writing to express my gratitude, my very sincere thanks, for your efforts on my behalf. See, Penn State University, an organization which was partially or wholly complicit (I expect the courts will be putting a dollar figure on how complicit in the near future) in your rape of little boys now needs to be seen doing something about Child Molestors Lurking Undetected In Penn State Organizations, a problem that they have decided to solve via Security Theater. (Security Theater is kabuki that makes people FEEL safer without accomplishing anything of value. Take flying. We are all safe from shoe bombs. We are all safe from persons carrying liquid bombs 4 oz in volume or more. As I recall, the original problem was guys with box cutters who had had enough simulator time to be able to fly a plane into a skyscraper... so what is TSA solving, again?)
As you (Mr. Sandusky) are probably completely unaware, I volunteer with my local 4-H children to condition their ponies for the state 4-H competitive ride. I have done this since around 2007. I'm good at it. My kids are good at it -- we take home at least one kiddie high-point trophy every year as well as the grown-up high-point award. But, the kids are still kind of little (10 and 12) and they need a grown-up to ride with them for the endless hours of conditioning. If I sent two ten year olds and a twelve year old out to ride ponies by themselves, I would be guilty of child endangerment. Shit, I'm not even allowed to leave children that size Home Alone without the danger of being investigated by Children and Youth.
The mommies and daddies of the 4-H kiddies have jobs that don't get them home with enough daylight left to be riding horses. Some of the mommies and daddies don't ride horses at all. Others have multiple, smaller kiddies that cannot be left unattended while the oldest kiddie is playing horse for two hours. The official 4-H leader (Lala) works out of town, doesn't get home until quite late (7:30 PM) and so is not available to take the kiddies riding. If there is to be conditioning (and there should be conditioning if you are trying to do responsible and ethical competitive riding), someone not-a-parent and not-the-4-H-leader is going to have to supervise the pony conditioning process and spend time with the kiddies. That person is me.
In order for me to continue that which I have been doing for the past five years, I need to fill out three forms and ship them off to Penn State to prove that I am not a child molestor. The forms want my name and social security and driver's license and stuff. They're going to do a background check. The background check covers criminal convictions, investigations for harassment, FBI/federal record, instances of me being a perp of sexual discrimination, etc. It may also (at the discretion of the investigating party) inquire about my credit history. My problem with this is not that they need all this information (although it is creepy and invasive) but that PSU and or the 4-H having all this information about me would not catch me if I was the sort of person who sneakily molested children for nigh on to twenty years and GOT AWAY WITH IT EVERY SINGLE TIME without any police record of the investigations that got dismissed and/or shut down.
The current security theater is not going to actually locate or identify child molesters like Mr. Sandusky. It is not going to do a damn thing to make the children in Pennsylvania's 4-H safer. All it does is create paperwork and invade the privacy of normal people to provide an illusory sense of security. And, well, it's going to piss me off.
I am writing to express my gratitude, my very sincere thanks, for your efforts on my behalf. See, Penn State University, an organization which was partially or wholly complicit (I expect the courts will be putting a dollar figure on how complicit in the near future) in your rape of little boys now needs to be seen doing something about Child Molestors Lurking Undetected In Penn State Organizations, a problem that they have decided to solve via Security Theater. (Security Theater is kabuki that makes people FEEL safer without accomplishing anything of value. Take flying. We are all safe from shoe bombs. We are all safe from persons carrying liquid bombs 4 oz in volume or more. As I recall, the original problem was guys with box cutters who had had enough simulator time to be able to fly a plane into a skyscraper... so what is TSA solving, again?)
As you (Mr. Sandusky) are probably completely unaware, I volunteer with my local 4-H children to condition their ponies for the state 4-H competitive ride. I have done this since around 2007. I'm good at it. My kids are good at it -- we take home at least one kiddie high-point trophy every year as well as the grown-up high-point award. But, the kids are still kind of little (10 and 12) and they need a grown-up to ride with them for the endless hours of conditioning. If I sent two ten year olds and a twelve year old out to ride ponies by themselves, I would be guilty of child endangerment. Shit, I'm not even allowed to leave children that size Home Alone without the danger of being investigated by Children and Youth.
The mommies and daddies of the 4-H kiddies have jobs that don't get them home with enough daylight left to be riding horses. Some of the mommies and daddies don't ride horses at all. Others have multiple, smaller kiddies that cannot be left unattended while the oldest kiddie is playing horse for two hours. The official 4-H leader (Lala) works out of town, doesn't get home until quite late (7:30 PM) and so is not available to take the kiddies riding. If there is to be conditioning (and there should be conditioning if you are trying to do responsible and ethical competitive riding), someone not-a-parent and not-the-4-H-leader is going to have to supervise the pony conditioning process and spend time with the kiddies. That person is me.
In order for me to continue that which I have been doing for the past five years, I need to fill out three forms and ship them off to Penn State to prove that I am not a child molestor. The forms want my name and social security and driver's license and stuff. They're going to do a background check. The background check covers criminal convictions, investigations for harassment, FBI/federal record, instances of me being a perp of sexual discrimination, etc. It may also (at the discretion of the investigating party) inquire about my credit history. My problem with this is not that they need all this information (although it is creepy and invasive) but that PSU and or the 4-H having all this information about me would not catch me if I was the sort of person who sneakily molested children for nigh on to twenty years and GOT AWAY WITH IT EVERY SINGLE TIME without any police record of the investigations that got dismissed and/or shut down.
The current security theater is not going to actually locate or identify child molesters like Mr. Sandusky. It is not going to do a damn thing to make the children in Pennsylvania's 4-H safer. All it does is create paperwork and invade the privacy of normal people to provide an illusory sense of security. And, well, it's going to piss me off.
