Now, I am no fan of JK Rowling, the British author of the Harry Potter series. She has spent the last decade and a whole bunch of money vilifying transgender women and claiming that they are a threat to cisgender women in women-only spaces. There is, however, no evidence to back up Rowling’s claims. What there is plenty of evidence of is well-heeled pedophiles sexually assaulting and raping both girls and boys. I wish JK would use her vast supplies of money on that crusade.
What brought all this up again for me this week was the news that Michigan’s Interlochen Center for the Arts was a grooming ground for Jeffrey Epstein and his friends on the Interlochen staff and board or directors. The reason it hit home so hard is that my youngest son is a 2015 graduate of the school, located not far from Traverse City. I had the opportunity to visit twice, once when we drove my son out there and then upon his graduation. It is a beautiful place in a park-like setting.
After all the earlier released stories that are part of the Epstein saga, I read that Epstein had been a student there in the 60s, in fact, he was a generous benefactor of the school, which now seems hardly surprising. A building on the grounds was named for him but the name was removed when the scandal around his pedophilia broke a number of years ago . I am heartbroken, yet somehow not surprised, that the school was yet another Zorro Ranch and Epstein Island where some girls and boys were sexually exploited in the worst imaginable ways. As I understand it, the school even shockingly allowed underage students to leave campus without parents or guardians.
After having lived on both sides of the gender divide, I struggle to understand why some men are able to restrain their sexual urges and yet others rape, molest, and engage in pedophilic behaviors. We have learned very well since the Epstein it is not just the single coach, scout master, priest/pastor, or creepy loaner luring kids with candy, groups of men who have been previously outed as sex offenders, that we have to fear. Instead, the most dangerous threat now appears to be a well-organized, well-financed, highly-networked group of elite class of men. This group has set up numerous coordinated systems with the sole purpose of sexually assaulting, abusing, and raping children. Most of us would have never thought that so many men at this high level of society would engage in such heinous behavior, yet here we are.
It is like layers of a grotesque onion keep getting peeled away to expose more and more horror stories. It has made me — and likely many of us, reevaluate our view of men, men who may have previously been held in high esteem for their positions in our country, and frankly the world community. Class and education and position don’t make a man decent —decency, respectability, and personal restraint come from a far different place, and luckily for all of us, there are still millions of men out there with those traits. This essay focuses on a relatively small group, albeit a group far larger than we would have ever guessed, of extremely bad, well, totally rotten, apples. That said, there are no words to accurately describe the horrors these men have inflicted on children. It is truly grotesque.
A closing thought: a good female friend and I were discussing this latest chapter in the Epstein saga. Many of you will remember the seemingly wacko QAnon conspiracy theory that emerged several years ago claiming that a large number of Democrats were involved in a massive cannibalistic pedophile ring. Many dismissed the story then. Now it seems there may be kernels of truth in that story, a story that transcends politics and includes trusted elite men most of us would never have pegged as pedophiles. My view of the world I live in will be never be the same. I expect many readers feel the same way.
Mariel E. Addis is a native of Florence. She left the area for 16 years but returned in 2013.