We should have known -- and should know now

By Scott Cawelti
WCF Courier
December 7, 2015

http://wcfcourier.com/news/opinion/cawelti/we-should-have-known----and-should-know/article_aa872c3c-8bf2-5dfc-a3e8-ac47d777888f.html

Why do we often miss what’s right in front of us? We have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear, as the Bible so memorably puts it.

Three instances worth pondering:

First, “Spotlight,” a disturbing new film about the Roman Catholic Church’s coverup of pedophile priests in Boston. It’s a horrific scandal that shook the church to its foundations worldwide.

Four smart and motivated Boston Globe investigative reporters — the “Spotlight” team, grew ever more amazed in 2001-02 when they uncovered church policies that enabled priests to continue abusing children for decades. The power of Boston Catholic church officials was all but absolute.

Yet the film reveals the scandal could have been exposed much sooner had these same reporters been paying attention. During their investigation, they learn they ignored hard evidence sent in by victims at least a decade earlier.

One of many victims, in frustration, tells the reporters flat-out: “I sent you all the facts years ago. But you buried it.”

These conscientious investigative reporters are dumbfounded. Why didn’t they pursue it when they first received it? Many more victims would have escaped trauma had they paid attention.

They can’t explain their inattention. In so many words, they admit “we should have known.”

Besides being a severe indictment of the church hierarchy for actively allowing crimes against children to continue, “Spotlight” reveals how those who ignore evidence share some of the guilt.

“Good Germans,” as one of the reporters sheepishly admits, referring to those German citizens who went along with the insanity that gripped Germany for over a decade.

Second, I remember with shame my own guilt in University of Northern Iowa classrooms, on a vastly smaller scale, of smoking in class during the 1970s. I would even occasionally bum cigarettes from students who seemed happy to share. Many others did too.

Now we would be kicked off campus and fined, and rightly so.

We didn’t see polluted classroom air right in front of us. We should have known.

Groupthink, peer pressure, everyone’s doing it, all contribute to explaining it. But that’s not all.

In fact we were not convinced at the time it was wrong. What’s a little friendly smoking between scholars? And in “Spotlight,” what’s a little priestly indiscretion compared to all the good the church does? That’s exactly what the Catholic cardinal of the Boston Archdiocese tells the reporter in “Spotlight.”

We have to be deeply and finally convinced, in our heart of hearts, that no rationalizations justify the actions we’re witnessing.

Finally, and all but inevitably, we should know by now about Donald Trump. He has announced his intentions loudly and clearly, many times over. They’re bigoted, impractical, embarrassing, foolhardy ideas. As some of his fellow Republicans assert, “He’s not a serious candidate.”

When questioned about his exaggerations, distortions, and outright lies — often by Republican candidates — he goes into bully mode, shouting and repeating. He’s a master of the “big lie” strategy that steamrolls those who want to believe. Worse, he plays off current terrorism fears and gins up patriotic fervor— sure-fire triggers for angry and fearful supporters.

They say, “He gets things done.” “Fact checkers are biased themselves.” “He’s not politically correct, but that means he’s free to tell the truth.” “He’s not beholden to big money.” All rationalizations. All false.

Here’s a man whose shameless, egomaniacal blowhardiness knows no bounds, and his button-pushing has garnered support from Americans who should know better.

I’m waiting for Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio or John Kasich — relatively reasonable candidates — to come out and say they’d vote for Hillary before Trump.

It won’t happen. But it’s what they already should have done.