HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News
October 23, 2018
By David Clohessy
Backers of the much-debated civil window for abuse and cover up lawsuits just won’t compromise.
So says Pennsylvania state Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati.
But, Scarnati, R-Jefferson, couldn’t be more wrong.
Here’s what he apparently doesn’t understand: Thousands of Pennsylvania citizens including hundreds in his own district, are already leading severely compromised lives because of horrific child sex crimes that are, even now, mostly being concealed by other allegedly “responsible” adults.
Thousands who were sexually abused as kids, have compromised sexualities and severely compromised self-confidence. They are the extremely common after-effects of having been used and abused by adults who purportedly love or value us.
Thousands more have compromised careers, having dropped out of school early or avoided college or gravitated toward jobs where frail self-esteems are less challenged.
Thousands have compromised relationships with family and friends, by whom we feel betrayed or unsupported or who we just can’t bring ourselves to trust others because our perpetrators so stunningly violated our trust at young and vulnerable ages.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimate that we “spend an average $9.3 billion per year in the U.S. due to the victimization-related costs associated with health care, child welfare, violence and crime, and a number of other expenditures, as well as productivity losses.”
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