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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (104709)	4/14/2007 9:42:42 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362447

Where do they go to get their names back? ______________________________________________________________ BY MITCH ALBOM DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST April 13, 2007 The Duke players made their statements and the cameras cut away. Too bad. That's when the real story started. I'd like the cameras to keep rolling. I'd like them to follow Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans after the crowds disappear, in the months and years ahead. I'd like to follow them when they apply for a job, and the company interviewing them has a staff meeting and someone in that staff meeting says, "Maybe we should stay away from this guy. After all, that whole rape thing ..." I'd like to follow them on their dates, when they go to the home of the women they love, and the families look at them and pass the potatoes and wonder, deep down, "Is our daughter safe?" I'd like to follow them through airports, when people recognize them and scowl. I'd like to follow them buying groceries, when someone reads their credit cards and says, "Aren't you the guy who ... ?" I'd like to follow them when they have children, and those children are in school, and some kid comes up and says, "I heard your daddy got away with it." I'd like to follow them when they sit at a computer, and they Google their own names, and up comes 1,000 stories that mention "arrest," "charge," "accusations" and "rape." And then I'd like those same cameras to follow the woman who made up these lies -- a woman whose name is still not being widely released, as if an obligation remains to somehow protect her -- to see how her life is going. The power of words I don't usually get biblical with this column, but there's a reason slander is considered such a sin in that book -- and in many other religions. Because once it's out there, you cannot take it back. Slander can shadow a life forever. So I'd like those cameras to film the now-empty streets that once held protest rallies against the Duke players. (One of the signs at those rallies read "Take Back The Night," a kind of odd sentiment considering the woman they were supporting worked night hours as an exotic dancer.) I'd like the cameras to film all the knee-jerk pundits and columnists who so craftily referred to that woman as a student and single mother but had no problem referring to Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans as rich, white lacrosse players. In other words, it's OK to identify one party by skin color and what they do, but not the other. I'd like the cameras to follow the Duke lacrosse team, and film the abuse its members endured from opposing fans and opposing players. Sure, the team held a party with booze and hired dancers. I'd like to film every person in America to ask them, on camera, if they ever drank when underage, or attended a party with exotic dancers. (Bachelor party, anyone?) I'd like to ask if that made them rapists. Evans told the media that Duke's lacrosse players "have gone to hell and back." But they're not really back. A never-ending story So it is astounding that no charges are being filed against this woman -- who changed her story so many times, a stenographer would have run out of paper. Why does she not face jail time? She did something awful. She ruined lives. Isn't that what critics said about the accused Duke students? They did something awful? They ruined lives? Weren't the Duke players prosecuted in part to discourage others from evil behavior? What is to discourage the next woman from lying the way this one did? No charges? No penalties? No name released? Rape is rape. Slander is slander. Both should know no color -- black or white. Both should know no class. And both should be punished. But all I'm hearing is "Oops, our DA was too aggressive. Sorry." That's not exactly justice. The cable networks loved this story last year because every day there was a new development. It had "legs." So I'd like to see the story covered the same way from this point on. Follow these three young men and report on the moment the shadow of slander is finally gone. Talk about legs. They'll be following them the rest of their lives. Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (104709)	4/14/2007 11:40:46 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 362447

The men from Duke were certainly not innocent players and yes they should have not been there . However, their names were muddied for over a year and they spent tons of money on attorneys. Their entire families went through hell. The boys were thrown out of school and at least one couldn't get into other schools because of the accusations. The girls, while they never deserved the name calling, had a few days of chaos but most of the nation backed them up entirely. The incident, while egregious, didn't result in the loss of a year of school and a loss of reputation. Those boys had a nation and press that was against them for over a year. If I had to choose between the two circumstances I would much rather be one of those girls than one of those guys at Duke.