This will not be a long post. Foley's new admissions, via his lawyer, are that (1) he was molested by a clergyman when he himself was young, (2) that he is in rehab, and (3) that he is gay.
My sympathy is with Mr. Foley, but... those things are not the point. Mr. Foley's statements, in fact, put a sharp edge on the point, here.
You do not abuse the trust of children. If you find out about the possible abuse of children, you have a duty to stop it. A duty. An imperative. An oath. All those words that men say, and seldom, apparently, mean.
Because sexual abuse ruins lives forever. What happened to Foley came full circle, from molested victim to predator himself. And now new children are involved, and new lives have been affected, forever.
That is why you do not abuse the trust of children. That is why it was so very important, when the red flags were raised, from 2001 onwards, from 2003 onwards, from 2005 onwards; you have a duty to do more than the most minimally possible nothing.
It is not a political duty. It is a duty to the lives involved -- the ones you know about, and all the ones you may not.
I am sick of this. I am sick of this entire foulness. I am sick of Hastert on the Rush Limbaugh show, and lawyers, and press conferences, and I am sick of what is going to come next. I am sick of our country preaching moral values, and electing to office those that, when the chips are down even in their very halls, have none.
At long last: even this?