Just when you thought it was so easy to hate sex offenders, a tear-jerking story emerges from the woods behind a Georgia office park to show us the soft, vulnerable side of these forgotten criminals. Nine convicted pervs were asked by police to move their campsite, a home they had set up after being shunned from virtually every community they attempted to settle in.
The scary prospect here is how these nine people are all simply one bad thing. Beyond bearing the humiliating title of ’sex offender’, these people may have many other characteristics, but we’ll just ignore them when we see them coming. They might be seriously troubled, mentally ill, or, worst of all, falsely accused. That doesn’t mean we won’t treat them like animals and outcast them until they feel like outcasts and finally start behaving like true outcasts.
It’s human nature to label and fear, but that doesn’t make it right. In fact, with the history of civilization as evidence, human nature is probably wrong more often than not. Criminals are criminals and should be reprimanded, but taking one’s dignity away can lead to a worse monster than you pictured in the first place.
