The Church's Sex Abuse Scandal Revisited

Four years ago, the Seattle Times was kind enough to give me some space to comment on the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal of recent years:  "Danger Signs on the Early Path to Priesthood"
     Now, just the other day, the prestigious John Jay College of Criminal Justice released its five-year study of the scandal, largely blaming  the tenor of times for leading priests astray.  Stuff and nonsense, I say!
     As I wrote four years ago, I have to believe that the Church’s high-school seminary system played a major role in the scandal.  Having attended a Catholic grade-school myself, I can personally attest to how throughout the eighth-grade we were periodically made to meditate on the topic of whether we had vocations. Under that sort of pressure, many a thirteen-year-old boy may have misinterpreted his indifference to girls as the sign of a vocation, only to experience a different sexual awakening in a conveniently cloistered same-sex setting.  I would bet that the majority of the priests who preyed upon young boys were products of the high-school seminaries.
      No one seems to be looking into this angle.  Someone should.
     That high-school seminary system now is largely defunct.  But the Church has yet to admit that it was a mistake.  Perhaps when it does, it will be able to move on.
     A poet I otherwise loathe, Robert Browning, in his poem "Fra Lippo Lippi," put it best:  "You should not take a fellow eight years old/ And make his swear never to kiss the girls."   The age, of course, is different, but the principle remains the same.--EFP       

The Palm Yacht

Here is the newly acquired Palm Yacht--still in dry dock at the moment.  Our weather is still quite blustery, but I am hoping to take my new vessel out on sea trials soon.  Be sure to click on the photo to get the full impact.  --EFP

Tiptoeing through the Tulips Again This Year

The tulips were in full bloom last Sunday in the Skagit Valley.  I took these photos at RoozenGarde, the public garden of one of the largest growers in the valley.  The man in the khaki shirt is one of the Roozen brothers.  The four young people are indicative of the 60-degrees-shirts-and-shoes-off mentality of the Pacific Northwest.  Click on the photos for a better view.  --EFP

A Wide Load

This little Oregon Junco is building a nest under the eaves at the back of our house.  --EFP

Delaware Dissing Bin Laden

In view of Sunday night's big news, I can’t resist sharing this Palm-Print, which I took on January 1, 2002, at the annual Hummers’ Day Parade in Middletown, Delaware.  The Hummers’ Parade is a parody of the Mummers’ Parade, held annually on New Year’s Day in Philadelphia.  The folks in Middletown can’t resist having a little fun at the expense of Philadelphia, under whose hegemony the northern half of Delaware lives.

House Fire

It was not a quiet day here in Silverdale, Washington, my adopted hometown here in the Northwest.  A house on our street caught fire.  It started in a carport and spread to the garage and roof before the fire department got it out.  The cause is "under investigation."  One of these photos is up on the Kitsap Sun's Web site.  (Click on the photos for a better view.)  We'll see if they use it in the print edition.  --EFP

A Blast from the Past

"Sarge" and friends, Vietnam, 1967

Confession being good for the soul, I will admit a special connection to one of the pop tunes of my wayward youth. Every time I hear the Four Tops rendition of "Just Walk Away Renee" I find myself flashing back to the last half of 1967 and to "Papa Three,"  the Combined Action Platoon I served with in Vietnam.

      The sergeant in charge of our platoon--Bill Cooke, or "Sarge" for short--joined Papa Three after a 30-day leave back home, his reward for extending his Vietnam tour of duty by six months.  One of the things he brought back from "The World," as we called it then, was a small battery operated tape recorder.  Along with the recorder he brought some tapes of "the latest sounds."  

      I suppose that my memories of that tape recorder remain vivid for two reasons:  

• First, before going to Vietnam, I had one very much like it.  My mother, who worked for a wholesale electronics company, had purchased two battery-operated miniature reel-to-reel recorders--one for me and one for my girlfriend.  Mother thought my girlfriend and I would like to record and send tapes back and forth to one another.  We used our recorders a few times when I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, but I did not take mine to Vietnam.  
• Second, it was strictly a voice recorder, meaning that it didn't have the dynamic range necessary for recording and playing music.  Hence, while the music Sarge had recorded was still recognizable, it played with a screechy, almost metallic sound.  

"Just Walk Away Renee" is the one song that stands out in my memory.  I don't think Sarge played it more than any of the other numbers he had recorded.  I think it was because that song, for some reason, really taxed the limits of Sarge's recorder and sounded so bad that it was almost good.  It was at least memorable.  

      Of course, I have no way of recreating that distinctive sound.  I can only share a tolerable You Tube video of the Four Tops singing their version of the song.  The title to this post is a link to that You Tube video.

      I am still in touch with four of my fellow Papa Three Marines.  I am hoping they can remember some of Sarge's other selections.  --EFP