Promising Young Men - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

In my years as a young reporter, I learned a lot about the editorial balance of running a community newspaper such as The Citizen from then-Publisher Keith Roulston. For example, most of the news you read in The Citizen is either positive about a member of the community or it’s matter-of-fact about certain proceedings, such as council meetings.

 

What I’m saying is, I suppose, that reporters for community newspapers don’t often dig into the dark corners of the lives of community members. Yet, when the time comes and we have a responsibility to defend residents, papers like The Citizen will step up, if they have the resources, and be that resource. 

 

In those early years, I had a formative conversation with Keith about court coverage (at the time, there was still a monthly court session in Wingham dealing with local crime). I had received pushback from a few locals who saw their names in the paper for the wrong reasons and Keith taught me a very valuable journalism lesson. That - I’m paraphrasing - stories like the ones that got me into hot water are not necessarily about “shaming” the guilty, but about supporting and validating the victim. 

 

This is a lesson we could all stand to absorb in the world today, as we observe a convicted felon and many-times-alleged sexual assaulter in a position of tremendous power. (Did you happen to see him tell a female reporter to, “Quiet, piggy,” in response to questions about the Epstein files - documents about victimized women with his name all over them - the other day? Hard to believe we’re not valuing victim-first empathy with him at the helm.)

 

I was thinking about a version of this earlier this week as I saw a friend post about the Jesse Butler situation down in Oklahoma. The 18-year-old (and son of the former director of football operations for Oklahoma State University, it should be noted) had faced 78 years in jail for charges of rape, strangulation, domestic assault and more, but a plea deal will see him have to complete community service.

 

Butler’s is being seen as one of those cases in which not only are favours being done for rich people by rich people, but in which those paid to enforce the law are reticent to do so, lest they ruin a promising young man’s life. 

 

This narrative appears again and again, very often when badly-behaving young, male athletes (or otherwise high-profile sons) face the consequences of their awful actions. Here, the world is focusing on how the perpetrator is affected; the survivor’s voice is seldom heard.

 

Let’s, for a moment, consider the survivors. In Butler’s case, it’s two teenage girls who were allegedly brutalized by him. As much as I refuse to speak for them, it’s relatively safe to say that their lives will never be the same. In what way are their promising futures being considered? How are they being preserved and protected as people? In many ways the damage has been done, only for them to be slapped in the face when their abuser goes free, complete with a healthy side of “chin up, son” as he gets over this hiccup in his narrative and returns to the life he deserves to lead, rather than having it forever ruined by making just one mistake. 

 

And yet, that’s exactly the story the survivor will tell, but there’s no one left to help them.

 

In my early twenties, working a retail job in Pickering, I was robbed at gunpoint as I closed up my shop for the night, and while it was a largely benign incident (no one was hurt), it still affects me to this day in some ways. How are those who’ve lived through horrific trauma being cared for by us and are their lives being valued as much as those who inflict trauma? I think we all know the answer is no.