Living A Nightmare
Is it even possible to imagine such an odious assault on the life of young girls? It's entirely possible, of course, that the perpetrator of the abduction of three young women in Cleveland, Ohio, was inspired and motivated by news of other men having done very similar things. Their ambitions, however, started and stopped with the abduction of one unfortunate victim. Whom they preyed upon until they were finally brought to justice.It's hard to imagine anything approximating justice that might help the three survivors of a decade of relentless, persistent human bondage and sexual degradation, let alone the child in their midst, adjust to their new reality. How to explain to a child why she and three women were segregated from society, held in conditions that express utter contempt for the health and well-being of people severed from normalcy, separated from their families, forced to live in inhumane conditions, with little hope of rescue?
All things being equal, it's possible that the child saw little other than being in the presence of three women who loved her and did their utmost to protect her. Could they? Under the circumstances in which they found themselves, unprotected by societal norms, by the social contract that respects the right of human beings to live secure and balanced lives.
Someone as functionally capable of living two lives simultaneously as their abductor, would without doubt depend on the reluctance of people to become 'involved' in other people's 'private business'. Content enough to know people on a strictly surface basis, respecting privacy, unwilling to intrude, accepting the facade. The facade hiding a situation as dysfunctional as that described by Ann Marie McDonald's epic novel Fall On Your Knees.
He was the neighbour that everyone knew, but didn't really know and had no abiding wish to know other than for surface pleasantries. Until, after living the lives of exploited, vulnerable captives in a seraglio servicing a vicious raptor's iniquitous purpose, one of the women managed to finally attract the attention of another human being capable of aiding her escape. Revealing the presence of the others, and finally finding freedom.
A horrendous existence of unimaginable fear and loathing, repression and oppression beyond imagination of the sane. Within the confines of a community. And despite the occasional episode that reeked of something seriously wrong, no one sufficiently alerted or concerned to become involved, to make an effort to halt the ongoing horror. It is inexpressibly squalid, sad, and immeasurably telling of society.
Good people caring, but not knowing, for if they knew they would react and act in a manner that would result in the rescue of the unfortunates from their evil-saturated misery. How could the activities of someone whose very personal history pointed to dysfunction, maladjustment, and familial abuse pass scrutiny? A man whose daughter suffered from a mental illness likely caused by having been abused by him?
A man whose wife claimed he threatened to kill her and whom he had indeed seriously injured in episodes of domestic violence. Whose wife accused him of "abducting his daughters". And when that wasn't sufficiently feasible, the plan to 'abduct' innocent strangers came into focus. Young girls whom he had seen and tracked, one of whom was an adolescent friend of his adolescent daughter.
Savagely tragic, miserably dreadful, beyond comprehension.
Labels: Atrocities, Child Abuse, Crime, Human Relations, Social-Cultural Deviations, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, May 09, 2013
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