Dennis Hastert pleads guilty

[cant_remember]

That means we don't have to deal with a trial and constant media triggers. Good news.

Cant.

 

[Severe stammer]

Hope he suffers in prison
5 people abused me so bit difficult and they've all covered it up and banded together .
Never mind
The Best revenge is survival

 

[unhappycamper]

Just the phrase "High School Wrestling Coach" makes me want to puke. And this hush-money perv is the guy who led the impeachment attack on Bill Clinton for making some dubious statements about affairs with adult women.

 

[Jude]

This plea deal is all about the "hush money".

By pleading guilty to illegally hiding these payments, he gets to avoid any official mention of what was being hushed up in the first place: DENNIS HASTERT SEXUALLY ABUSED TEENAGE BOYS WHEN HE WAS A HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER AND WRESTLING COACH.

I realize that the SOL has long since run out on the sex crimes he perpetrated against these children, and I suppose its better that he face some punishment than none at all. Still it seems that it would be fitting to require him to confess to his sex crimes as part of the deal. I think the prosecutors dropped the ball on this one.

 

[Bluedogone]

I suppose it is good that there won't be a replay of the wide spread media circus like the Sandusky case, which opened so many wounds and brought on triggers. But it's still sad that time, a ton of money, and status will let this perp off so easy, when his victims had a lifetime to cope.

 

[Nothing Man]

At least his secret is out and we all know what he is.

 

[cant_remember]

Also, it looks like his victim-blackmailer got something like $3.2 million from Hastert, and it doesn't look like his victim-blackmailer will get prosecuted. So there's that.

Also #2, not clear yet if Hastert will skirt without jail time. Time will tell.

Cant

 

[Bluedogone]

Good Points Cant,

I have to admire the victim-blackmailer. Although money is a piss poor substitute for an abuse free life, it seems he waited until Hastert was more financially well off to go for the big bucks. Good for him.

Victim-blackmailer - 1
HS wrestling coach douch bag politician - 0

 

[C. E.]

I have to admire the victim-blackmailer. Although money is a piss poor substitute for an abuse free life, it seems he waited until Hastert was more financially well off to go for the big bucks. Good for him.

Victim-blackmailer - 1
HS wrestling coach douch bag politician - 0

Fellow survivors - 0

This is a big payday for the victim. Yet it saddens me that the plea deal he agreed to ensures that everyone's' secrets remain intact.

As much as the Sandusky trial created a media carnival, it still spoke aloud about what was once only whispered. Site registration here surged perhaps more than at any single time during that trial. When people are brave enough to talk about it, it empowers others to step out of their own secrets. I think this plea agreement was a lost opportunity for other survivors.

 

[Bluedogone]

It's great that this site's registration surged during the time of the Sandusky trial. If that translated into a more open dialog about a subject that was previously only whispered about, then it was definitely worth bringing on the media circus. And if a great many of these new members as a result, sought help with their healing, which they otherwise wouldn't have without the publicity of the trial, so much the better.

But it seems the take away from that trial and related headlines was more along the lines of NCAA Sanctions Penn State Number One In College Football more so than The Devastation of Male Sexual Abuse Now Openly Discussed

Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm most grateful for anything that sheds more light on a subject that, through my own fear and a wide spread public indifference, I was utterly silent about for years. I just think fellow survivors did better than score zero from this latest fiasco. Not as many victims came forward in this case, but a grueling cross examination is avoided nevertheless. Countless survivors are spared the emotional upheaval that comes with the triggers of re-living through a trial, their own abuse. Even though the media won't have a lot of the juicy details of a trial, it is newsworthy and it does make many front page news editions.

In spite of no trial, it's worthy of a Forum entry on MS.

 

[Bluedogone]

Bluedogone, boy were you wrong !!

This is certainly a WTF moment for me. Hastert in open court "for the record" admits he lied to the FBI. Lied to the FBI !! What an awful felonious guy this must be to actually lie to the FBI. And the dreadful consequences for this horrendous act of lying to the FBI means UP TO six months in jail. In the real world this probably means No Jail Time and maybe a little probation.

John Wayne Gary is turning over in his grave. If not, he should be. He at least had the courtesy of killing his victims instead of allowing them live to see him become a very successful politician/lobbyist.

 

[C. E.]

He at least had the courtesy of killing his victims instead of allowing them live to see him become a very successful politician/lobbyist.

Reality. If you were to ask any one of those poor kids while they were being garroted if they considered it a courtesy, I suspect they would say no. If you asked any one of them the price they would pay to step out of that house of horrors alive, they certainly would have offered any price at all. Some of us have been in such a terrifying situation and surrender our intimacy like puppets in the most humiliating ways just to walk out of it - to survive it. And some live with that. And others find they cannot - they are unable to reconcile the price they had to pay to live, or escape the nightmares that grow in their heads every night like weeds. And sometimes death catches up anyways through their own hand. I have known some here who I thought were survivors - only to realize that death came to them belatedly liked marked men, unable to survive despite their best efforts.

I know this place is called Male Survivor, but I have always felt there should be a place here for those who did not survive - the quiet voices that most of us do not seem to hear, the ghosts forever locked in a dead childhood - who never got to become brothers with us, who never had an opportunity to at least try to heal. Or the adults who never broke out of the horrors of their childhood - and one day just stepped out the door forever. We know some of them. I carry a candle for one - his name was Emanuel. He was tortured across the lake from me, killed, and discarded in a trash bag. He barely got out of life's starting blocks. He never hit his teens. Never got to grow to a triple-digit weight. And he suffered a death I still cannot imagine. After all these years, it still haunts me - sometimes even stops me in my tracks. And so I keep a promise I made to him when I came here - that I would speak for him when I could. Perhaps this is such a moment.

The outrage you express is justified, Bluedogone. I totally agree. I personally think that no-one wants to even look at the abuse - so the deals are made, the technical charges of lying to the FBI side-step the more significant crimes of abusing a child. We saw this with Jerry Sandusky, who abused with impunity for years before the weight of his crimes became an elephant that people could no longer pretend not to see. We have seen it in the churches. In the Boy Scouts. This is nothing new.

But in our outrage, I just think we need to be more mindful when we invoke the horrors of those who can no longer speak for themselves. We carry them here with us, and are in a sense their guardians. I know what you said was tongue-in-cheek. I know it was not meant in any literal sense. But it seems that when we say such things, we are treading on graves of those who might have been our friends, our brothers here. Perhaps that should be done with a softer step.

 

[Bluedogone]

You're right Eric,

I've gone off the deep end in this regard. I certainly had no intention of demeaning or trivializing the lives of those young men who will ever be silent because they came in contact with John Gacy. I recently re-read a book about this case which was still on my mind, nevertheless, my comments were completely out of order. There is no humor in all this tragedy.

I owe an apology to those young men, as well as a moment of reflection and apology to all those folks who will never speak because they took their own lives rather than face the reality of what they perceived their future would be.

My apology to them. And to anyone who was offended by my comments.

 

[unhappycamper]

Keep in mind that, every time we hear one of these stories, it means at least that the perv-etrator was found out. Most people--certainly everyone here at MS--can figure out what Dennis Hass-turd was up to. We don't need to hear more.

John

 

[JW1230]

Your heart is in the right place, you just spoke without thinking it through...who among us has not done this before...It takes a strong person to be able to apologize when it is pointed out that something that they said could be offensive or hurtful to others (even though it was not done intentionally). In my opinion, it takes even a stronger person not to beat themselves up because they are not perfect....
Be well,
John

 

[Rich1967]

I think we do need to hear about this stuff over and over again till society isn't so horrified by it that they all choose to ignore it when they see it. Abusers, victims and society never want to talk about this stuff. That's what keeps the cycle going. I want people to see it and be horrified but still know they have to act to keep it from happening.

The only thing not talking about it does is delay the inevitable and allow more pain and suffering to go on unchecked as well as allow more victims to be created.

I know it can be painful to hear but life is not meant to be pain free. It's kind of ironic though that I choose to suffer through the pain of talking about my story to the public in the hopes of sparing other men from this kind of pain that we all talk about here.

 

[C. E.]

Your heart is in the right place, you just spoke without thinking it through...who among us has not done this before...It takes a strong person to be able to apologize when it is pointed out that something that they said could be offensive or hurtful to others (even though it was not done intentionally). In my opinion, it takes even a stronger person not to beat themselves up because they are not perfect....
Be well,
John

Very true. I am more often wrong than right about most things. My feelings about the particular subject are particularly strong, and I do apologize if it came across as accusatory or berating. That was not the intent. Ultimately, my little fulmination had much more to do with me and really nothing to do with you, Bluedogone.