First off, I just want to apologize for getting into politics when I know I shouldn’t. I don’t say things right and I answer in haste. It ends up coming out all wrong and then I’m sorry for what I said later. So I apologize to you all. I should have some sort of a little slapper that will slap my hand when I start typing to make me quit.
Anyway, we saw a movie last night that was a very interesting study on human nature. Capturing the Friedmans. Did anyone see it? It was a true story and very, very sad. Here is a family that seems normal and happy in most aspects but underneath it there is a huge dysfunction brewing.
The father was a respected computer and science teacher at the school. They had 3 boys that were all seemingly happy. However, the father had grown up neglected, shared a room with his young brother and mother who brought home men to have sex with. This affected him somehow and he claimed later he molested his younger brother when he was eight. Interestingly, the younger brother, even at 63 yrs of age today, doesn’t remember it at all.
Anyway, the father was caught buying child porn and incest magazines. This prompted the police to investigate his computer class of children. However, they ended up with these trumped charges and hysterical parents who, it seems, whipped the townsfolk into a frenzy. The children were questioned in the fashion of the late 80s wherein they were more told what they should be thinking had happened. Then, to make sure they remembered it, they had them hypnotized, which today, apparently, is considered a way of bringing about false memories. In the end, both father and son pleaded guilty thinking that would give them shorter sentences because of the media hype and small town fury. They thought it would be worse if they went to trial. However, the judge sentenced the 18 yr old son the longest term she could, so that turned out not to be true. Both father and son claimed their innocence to the end.
Interestingly, the father admitted to having two pedophilia encounters but cut it off at that point and claimed he never touched any of the students. One student interviewed today claims he never saw anything happen in any of the classes. It was simply a boring computer class. It was such a sad story.