Patterns of Denial: Enemies of the People
Does the truth set us free? Good question for this week of July 4th celebrations and time of fireworks to honor freedom.
How willing are you to stand up and be counted? How willing are you to be GUTSY and say “It will stop with me”? What are the boundaries around the ways we leave each to their own, to personal independence, and when do we step in and get involved?
Not easy questions, even more difficult are the answers.
The scandal at Penn State is reminiscent of the Ibsen play “An Enemy of the People”. When values and economics clash the winner is, sadly, economics.
In Ibsen’s play, a doctor in a town that is dependent for its livelihood on a mineral spa finds that the water is filled with unhealthy bacteria. He speaks out and finds the entire town turns against him. There is avoidance and denial of the problem. Let the doctor shut up and all will be fine.
Penn State had a blight known as Jerry Sandusky, a sick and tortured man who will die in prison and disgrace. Yet, how many others will live with the pain of broken boundaries, of childhood interrupted because those who knew decided to keep the lid on the can of worms?
What does it take for each of us to consider the fact that we are all connected and that if we see, hear or even sense that children are being used for the pleasure of adults, it is the right thing to speak up. And if we are ultimately wrong? Speak out anyway. Go to the Children and Youth agency. The truth will out.
It takes all of us to be brave, to be gutsy and say “it will stop with me”.
It will take Penn State many years to have its image untarnished; from President to Head Coach and all in-between to make peace with their silence.
Hopefully we can all learn that the patterns of avoidance and denial are the blight. And the truth does set us free.
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