To the Editor:

This week's editorial [What if we look at pedophilia as a medical rather than a moral problem?] didn't sit well with my wife and me, and we wanted to register our unease with the essay's argument and its implications.

The timing is relevant.  My wife and I read your essay only a few days after reading the open letter from the woman Brock Turner raped.  I'm sure you've read the letter too.  It reminds all of us that there's no such thing as non-consensual sex.

There is rape and there is sex — that's it.  In that context, Turner's defense — and Judge Aaron Persky's sentence — was offensive because the two men refused to see that distinction.  Blaming "twenty minutes of action" on alcohol and a university's culture is insulting.

If you want to be a member of civilized society, you have to take responsibility for what you do.  Personal responsibility is the foundation of liberal democracy, and irresponsibility negates the rationale of self-government — this is Civics 101.

Your editorial is thoughtful, but the line of reasoning is arguably what facilitated pedophilia within the Catholic Church.  James Hockenbury confessed to committing a crime.  The story here is not society's intolerant attitudes about pedophilia; the story is that one of our neighbors confessed to a horrible crime.

It was the Catholic Church's impulse to understand — and forgive — pedophilia that nurtured individual rapists and created the intellectual space to normalize that behavior.  Their starting point wasn't irrational, but it was the wrong place to begin the conversation.  The consequences speak for themselves.

The facts in the Hockenbury case seem straightforward.  This man recognized his sickness, surrounded himself with children, and then selected a victim purposefully.  We can dilute Hockenbury's cruelty with social science research.  If he finds a good lawyer and a sympathetic judge, perhaps he, too, will receive a six-month prison sentence.  But not everyone is a victim, and it's not illiberal to say so.

I'm disappointed that your editorial sidestepped the issue of personal responsibility.  The thrust of your argument was that taxpayers should fund therapy for pedophiles, so these diseased individuals learn to control their urges appropriately.  Maybe you're right.

But the conversation we're having in our home this week isn't about public funding and new legislation.  We're talking about responsibility, dignity, and grace.  Every one of us has traveled our own journey, but if we're going to live together we require bedrock principles, and when something horrific happens to a community, it is wise to return to these bedrock principles.  

I'm sure you agree.

Thank you for your service to the community.  The Altamont Enterprise plays an important role in Guilderland, and my wife and I appreciate the work you put into the paper.

Ryan Irwin

Guilderland

Editor’s note: The editorial is online at www.AltamontEnterprise.com.