Megan's Law the Pink Triangle of the USA

Years ago a man named Hitler tattooed all the gay people in Germany with a Pink Triangle as a means of singling the homosexuals out amoung their society. But Hitler didn't stop there. All undesirables were eventually weeded out and sent to the death camps.



So here we are, supposedly forward thinking individuals that have learned from our past and the atrocities that have been used against men and women throughout history be it the slaves of the plantations in the south of the US or the unequal rights of the female sex or the genocide that is being commited in Dufar, Sudan today.

But here in America, only a few years ago we enacted Megan's Law which requires that all sex offenders regardless of their crime be listed in a public registry as a supposed awareness measure for concerned families to protect their children. But I'd imagine that there is probably not one individual that checks the registry prior to moving into their new home. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and suggest that the few people that use these registries are in fact just looking out of curiousity, as I did the other day. Just to see if I knew anyone on the list.

At the top of the page of these registries which are maintained on a state by state basis you will see:

WARNING

ANY PERSON WHO USES THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN TO THREATEN, INTIMIDATE, OR HARASS THE REGISTRANT OR THEIR FAMILY, OR WHO OTHERWISE MISUSES THIS INFORMATION, MAY BE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION OR CIVIL LIABILITY.

The you click a button to indicate your understanding and acceptance of the terms of viewing the information. I'd sure that's a real deterant to someone out to make trouble.

The verbage continues on to read:

Pennsylvania's General Assembly has determined that public safety will be enhanced by making information about registered sex offenders available to the public through the Internet. Knowledge whether a person is a registered sex offender could be a significant factor in protecting yourself, your family members, or persons in your care from recidivist acts by registered sex offenders. Public access to information about registered sex offenders is intended solely as a means of public protection.

It seems a bit odd to me that we single out only these select individuals in our communities to ostricize. What about murderers, people that have committed burglaries or arsonist, aren't these people also a threat to our safety?

Sometimes it seems as if the whole world has gone made riding a wave of one particular issue for years while ignoring or even thinking about the ramifications of their emotionally driven choices.

I agree that our justice system is far from perfect and the routine slaps on the wrist are a result of an overwhelming prison population, so the least dangerous are often released to make room for more dangerous people and unless we want to spend a quarter of our GDP on prisons and support staff we're going to have to impose lighter sentences. So once again it comes down to money vs. whatever and we as a society value money over safety...well pretty much money over everything!

I believe that Ghandi was wrong when he said "an eye for an eye and soon the whole world would be blind". I believe the eye for an eye mentality would greatly reduce the abhorent behavior of criminals in our society and I guarantee that once a rapist had his testicles removed he certainly wouldn't be able to rape again nor would he have the desire. In fact I'm willing to bet he would think very hard before doing it the first time.

And how about our less than honest elected officials, the ones that always get caught with their hand in the proverbial "cookie jar"? I'm willing to bet our legislators would have a new found honesty if we were to start cutting off hands for stealing or embezzling. And we wouldn't need any lists to search or put up on the internet - all you'd have to do was look at someone to know their character. Well, maybe you'd have to check under the hood of a few - lol.

Whatever happens in our society now or in the future should certainly be handed out equally and if Meghan's Law is to be part of our preferred treatment of criminals in our society than all criminals should be treated the same otherwise our actions, good intentioned as they are, are no better than Hitler's and can easily lead to elimination of undesirables in our society for a more perfect world.