“You sorry, Harvey?” According to USA Today, as Harvey Weinstein was being arrested for sexual misconduct with more than 80 women, he shook his head and replied, “No.” When I read that in yesterday’s paper, I remembered my last conversation with my father. Knowing the end might be near, I asked to be alone with him for a few minutes. Although he was now a frail, 81-year-old man laying under a hospital blanket, being alone with the monster who had terrorized my youth still made me feel scared, shaky and vulnerable, but I had to ask him an important question. “Dad,” I began, “you really hurt us kids when we were little.” I reminded him that my siblings and I were forever scarred from all he had inflicted upon our developing minds and bodies. “This is your chance to say you’re sorry.” I told him that it might be his last opportunity to apologize to us, and to make things right with the Lord. I told him I would share his apology with my siblings, because we all needed to hear it. In that self-righteous, better-than, high-browed voice that I had heard so many times, he responded without hesitancy, “No, I’m not sorry. I did nothing wrong.” I am not his judge, God is, but I can only imagine how sorry he must now be. Weinstein and another well-known abuser in recent headlines, Bill Cosby, still have a chance before they meet their Maker to tell their victims that they were wrong, they are sorry. But like my father and all of us, their time is limited. I hope they apologize to allow the healing to begin for their victims, and so that they won’t spend an eternity of screaming while gnashing their teeth, with sharp talons digging into their burning skin, along with the man I once trusted and called “Daddy.”
After Weinstein was arraigned in his rape case, he was freed on $1,000,000 bail. As I had learned from my father who was also a well-respected Business Tycoon and who was never incarcerated while in this world,
When Money Talks, Evil Walks.
Blessings To You and Yours,
Laura
Author. Professional Public Speaker. Educator. Passionate Child Abuse Prevention Advocate.