By now, I would guess that most have heard about this privileged Stanford student who brutally raped a young woman and then was sentenced only to six months in jail. The young athlete’s father wrote to the judge to plead for a lenient sentence, saying essentially that his son’s 20 golden years should not be disrupted by the “twenty minutes of action.”
Yes, that’s all the mention that the raped woman got in the father’s mind. Twenty minutes to destroy her life should not derail the son’s life.
That is the definition of privilege. That’s the corruption of wealth. That’s the new definition of rape if you’ve got enough money for expensive lawyers and enough connections to expect your plea for mercy for the perp to be not only read but to influence the judge.
Six months in jail. Three years probation. That’s it. Well, unless you count being a registered sex offender.
Poor, sad, appetite-less spoiled little rich kid. According to his dad, “Brock always enjoyed certain types of food and is a very good cook himself. I was always excited to buy him a big ribeye steak to grill or to get his favorite steak for him. … Now he barely consumes any food and eats only to exist.”
Are you weeping yet?
Yeah, his life is torn apart. I understand that. And who among us doesn’t regret some of the bad, really bad, decisions we made?
But the essence of growing up revolves around these two things: taking responsibility for what we do and acknowledging when we have grievously hurt another. Those two things make human relationships possible. They mean we can drive on the same roads, share public spaces with the stranger, trust that contracts will be honored and covenants kept.
Life is not just all about us.
This is why I don’t want to see Mr. “Make-America-White-Again” elected President of the US. Over and over again, he has demonstrated that his core values circle around retaliation and blame. It may make him a “successful” businessman. It definitely makes him scary on the world stage where as President he has powers to blow us all to smithereens when he gets his feelings hurt.
As for this young man and his six-month sentence: It is my hope that he can learn what true repentance is during this time, that he can take his privilege and turn it to responsibility and to compassion. Would that his dad would also be brought to his knees in sorrow over his attitude toward the woman so horribly violated.
But that will not undo the damage he caused. What’s worse, between the two of them, they have utterly trivialized this woman’s suffering, essentially discarding her on a trash heap as unworthy of consideration.
There’s no way to make that right. But we can stop from putting in a man for POTUS who operates out of the same principle that wealth and privilege means he can do anything he wants to anyone he wishes. Unless, of course, you want decency redefined just as rape has in this tragic case.
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