Like father, like...father?

Hm, check this out, I'm actually going to try my hand at some news commentary.

When I got home, Weird Kid was waiting for Smallville to start up on WPIX. I caught the tail end of the newscast. For some reason I enjoy their newscasts since they are all about New York City. I realize that most of their stories are from a land so far away that they really have no relevance to me, but I appreciate the stories 'cuz it adds more "realness" to my penchant for NYC. These people are not all socialites and big-time corporate VIPs, some of souls in the Big Apple lead normal everyday lives not much different from my own. I know, I know....it should be an obvious given. But I need that reality check every once in a while.

The news story that struck me today was about a Catholic priest who was being tried for sexually abusing a teenage boy. Unfortunately, this is the kind of story we hear about time and time again. What I could not wrap my head around, however, was the fact that this priest was actually abused himself when he was younger by another priest.

Now, the sensible part of me thinks: Shouldn't this priest have known, without a doubt, that what he was doing was wrong? (Not that there is any good excuse for that type of behaviour) I mean, if he was violated and abused himself, why would he want to inflict that same pain and shame on another innocent person?

And then I think: Cycle of Abuse

But that is such a cop out! I know that I have no real way of knowing what it's like for these abused people. You can say they know no better. But I believe they do. They know first-hand what the abuse does to them, how it makes them feel. To consciously cause that type of grief upon another person is beyond wrong.

Alas, I know that things are never that clear-cut to understand. I could not begin to comprehend what goes on in their minds when they do what they do and then say this and think that again and say such and such.

But the Cycle of Abuse, thankfully, is not always ongoing. A close friend's dad, well, he wasn't so cool towards his wife. Does this mean that my friend treats women like crap 'cuz "that's all he knows?" Heck, no! He could never do anything like that. "(He) will never be like (his) father." And I couldn't be more proud of him for that.