By Jim Raykie
It seems like every time I pick up a newspaper these days, including The Herald, pages are filled with stories about child molestation, sexual perversion, and other bizarre stories that are painful to read but need to be printed.
Locally, The Herald carried a story on the front page Saturday about a former area music teacher in Grove City and stage manager at Westminster College who was charged with secretly filming sex acts by four boys at a camp north of New York City where he was the camp counselor. Remember when you could send your kids to camp and feel confident about their safety and their guidance?
Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a story about a well-respected Mount Lebanon High School teacher and tennis coach who police said solicited an undercover agent who was posing as a 14-year-old girl online. It’s another of these sad, sad stories.
In my 34 years at The Herald, it’s my guess we have had more of these kinds of stories in the last three years than in my first 31. Theories abound, but I’ve got one and I’m sticking to it. Put technology at the top of the list.
I think that most of these perversions have been a part of our society for years, but before the Internet, people with such problems didn’t have such an open opportunity. VCRs gave owners access to all kinds of XXX-rated films, and the advent of Internet online chats and other sexually-explicit Web sites have pushed the doors wide open.
With that increased activity has come more sting operations and other investigations by police, attempts at more control by concerned parents, and more willingness by society to bring these psychos to justice.
Readers and other callers ask me why we’re “obsessed” with reporting such news. First off, I don’t think we’re the ones who are obsessed. Newspapers shouldn’t sweep such a disturbing problem under the carpet, especially when it involves young children.
The problem won’t disappear, as some seem to think, if newspapers quit publishing such stories. Raising awareness of the severity and frequency of it is a major step in the right direction.
Jones book signing is Thursday
Retired Col. Donald Jones came to my office at The Herald last week bearing a gift — a signed copy of his book “The Path That Was Set for Me,” published locally by Green Street Press of Hermitage.
I had given the final edit to his manuscript during the winter and early spring, and it’s fascinating to see the final product.
It’s a transformation of raw text into book format, complete with photos, index, and a host of other helpful appendices.
The nearly 300-page book, which sells for $20, is an inspirational recap of the colonel’s exemplary life, which started in the coal mines of Indiana, Pa. It retraces his journey, including his high school days after moving to Farrell, his acceptance of a basketball scholarship to Niagara University, his decorated 28-year Army career as a Green Beret, and his successful venture into private industry after retiring from the military.
After chatting a little about his book, we headed for lunch, where we reminisced about Farrell, about all of the work that he had channeled into The Path, and his upcoming Special Forces reunion in Las Vegas, where the book should be a big hit.
Locally, he’s having a book signing at Farrell Community Center’s Minority Health Room on Thursday. If you can’t make it to the signing, but are interested in the colonel’s book, you can call him at 724-662-0606 or 407-461-9048, or contact him via e-mail at donjones12@aol.com
The drinking age debate
A heated battle is looming on the horizon as presidents from some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges are planning to open a national debate about lowering the drinking age to 18.
The presidents, including ones from Duke and Ohio State, favor the lowering of the age because they believe it will lessen the want for binge drinking that has plagued campuses for decades.
Not everyone agrees with that premise, including Miami University President Donna Shalala, and of course, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The latter believes that the lowering of the drinking age will increase traffic fatalities.
One of the compromises mentioned by several involved, and cited in a recent editorial by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is lowering the age to 19, which for the most part would eliminate legal drinking by students in high school.
Factoring into the discussion from other groups will be the age-old argument that if you can risk your life fighting a war for your country at 18, you should be able to have a beer at that age as well. It will be interesting to watch this forum unfold.
Jim Raykie is the editor of The Herald and writes this column on Mondays. His e-mail is jraykie@sharonherald.com
