11/15/09 – TG EDITORIAL: Just Desserts; Wheels of justice grind slowly, but they eventually caught up with Tony Alamo ***COMMENTS***
Texarkana Gazette
November 15, 2009
Editorial
Just Desserts;
Wheels of justice grind slowly, but they eventually caught up with Tony Alamo
Justice sometimes takes time. And often, we are convinced, it is not done in chronological time, one of our human measuring sticks.
But Friday, justice caught up to evangelist Tony Alamo in a federal courthouse in Texarkana in a frame of reference we can identify with and support. He was sentenced to 175 years on numerous counts of having sex with underage girls.
The sentence—the maximum U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes could assess—is what all but the most delusional of Alamo’s followers believe he deserves for despoiling young lives in the name of God.
For a 75-year-old man, it may seem excessive and intended to add extreme emphasis on the seriousness of the crimes. The sentence of 175 years will amount to several lifetimes for Alamo. Given his age and his health, it is beyond unlikely he will walk out of federal custody.
It is not too much—especially if we consider the time recompense for the damage done to his victims.
They will spend their lifetimes reckoning with the damage Alamo has done to them physically, mentally and spiritually. It took a long time for our systems of laws and public welfare to rescue these young people. It will take even longer for them to heal. Some may not, even if they have all the resources available to them.
In the sense that Alamo is doing life—several times over—for his trespasses against the innocent, with the complicity of their gullible parents, it’s too bad more years could not be piled up against him.
Furthermore, the prosecutions ought not to stop with him. His associates should be hauled into court and off to prison. The parents or guardians of the victims should be brought to the bar of justice also. At a minimum they should lose their parental rights.
It is one thing for adults to give up all claims to their own free will to follow a religious charlatan. It is another to sacrifice their children to him. No God worth worshipping would require such an offering.
November 15th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
“No God worth worshipping would require such an offering.”
It bears repeating, and it is the sentiment which set me free to be the woman I am today: a passionate mother who guards her children’s innocence with her soul, if need be.
I would wrestle an archangel for the life of my child, and the thing is, it took me so long to see no one was trying to take her from me. It was Tony’s voice in my head. He knew how to play on my guilt, my most vulnerable place and he makes parents feel guilty for desiring to do what they were created to do: Ensure the survival of their offspring. It is so simple, so obvious, and he ripped it away from my parents and tried to rip it away from me.
So many times, in my head, I told him to go to **ll. He’s there now. Today, it is up to parents to fight the dragons within and love their children…if they don’t, others will rise up in their stead…
Isn’t there a verse about God using a stone? For the little children who are in foster care, I think of you often; I love you and hope you are happy and safe. God hears your prayers and you don’t have to suffer. Pray for your parents that they will see your strength.
With Love