I can't help but wonder whether there are searing, blistering, skinning, and quartering rooms in Hell designated for serial pedophiles (Larry Nassar) and the depraved individuals (Steve Penny) who harbor their secrets for fear of losing cash or tarnishing brand cachet (USA Gymnastics).
Innocence lost is irretrievable, of course.
There are no words strong enough for the collective anguish, though there is plenty to go around.
My disgust and repugnance of the enablers and perpetrators, however, are matched in degree by my reverence and respect for the survivors, dozens of whom stared down their monster in court and retrieved—if not their innocence—their agency.
As for Béla and Márta Károlyi's undisputed physical and mental abuse of hundreds of young athletes across five decades, and their role in allegedly turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct in exchange for little pucks of gold, time has a rather reliable track record of revealing much, if not most. And, of course, should judgment be your bag, then all will be revealed in due time.
Now, should neither admission nor repentance be pursued by those guilty of committing atrocities against children, I'm sure there are many rooms.
As part of the healing process, however, I very much hope and pray those who knowingly did wrong will step forward and confess their complicity in wrongdoing, that gaping wounds might at least be less gaping.
Stand and be counted, I say.
