The one who loves the least, controls the most

The future is in our past - With the Jaycee Lee Dugard case, Larry King and Anderson Cooper missed a good opportunity to explore selfishness in the minds of abusers. Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted nearly two decades ago, when she was 11 years old. In their programs, when interviewing people associated with Jaycee's plight, both King and Cooper passed over answers that could have lead to off the cuff questions about why perpetrators disregard others.

Jaycee's alleged abductor, Phillip Garrido, was a registered sex offender who kept her captive for eighteen years. Her stepfather, the last person to see her before she was abducted, lived under a cloud of suspicion until she was found alive.

Garrido had a history of sexual abuse against women and was on parole for abduction and rape when he kidnapped Jaycee. There doesn't seem to be any restrictions on discussing the parole and why he was released from prison. People are calling for longer sentences and restrictions on parole.

The silence kicks in when pointed attention is drawn to the selfishness of people who regard other people as less than nothing. Jaycee Lee Dugard's stepfather tried to make that point with Larry King. He tried to say that Garrido, who fancies himself a messenger from God, is totally concerned with himself. His victims are merely a means to an end.

Larry missed that relevant point. Garrido has shown no remorse for his victims, but says that he has turned his own life around and is now a reformed character. He says the world will eventually see a wonderful story emerge from his life. Garrido is euphoric that he has found God.

Why don't we question the state of mind of people who claim they have found God? When Garrido says that he has found God, why don't we ask what God says about his crimes? There's something lacking in the public response to criminals finding God.

Phillip Garrido's history is long and sordid. He asked Katie Calloway Hall for a lift in 1976 before Jaycee was born. When Katie obliged, he attacked her, took her to a warehouse where he raped her for eight hours. She was lucky that a policeman saw fit to investigate a broken lock on the warehouse door. While the policeman was talking to Garrido, Katie ran outside naked. When Garrido kidnapped Katie, he said, "You know, I just want a piece of ???. Be good and I won't hurt you."

What is going through the mind of a person who sees another human being as an object to be used and abused? How can a person who does this type of horrible abuse find God and not find remorse? Why don't they realize the selfishness of their actions? If they've found God, why is it still about them and their comfort and never about the victim?

Not every obsessed person kidnaps, rapes and murders! But they can commit other horrible crimes against human beings. Rock star Chris Brown is in the news presently for attacking his girlfriend Rhianna. Like Garrido, it's not clear that Chris realizes the terrible nature of his crime.

On Larry King Live, Chris said, "That was not me. That was not the person I want to be." What Chris did may not reflect the kind of person he wants to be but Chris is wrong in saying "it was not me." It was/is Chris, and the person that Chris was/is will most likely keep repeating the abuse unless he does serious reflection on his need to control. Nothing he said in the interview indicates that Chris Brown understands his girlfriend is due respect, and that he's ready for soul searching.

The John Walsh interview on Anderson Cooper's show summed it up well. John's son Adam was kidnapped in 1981 by Ottis O'Toole, who confessed on his deathbed to kidnapping and beheading the child. After the abduction, John Walsh started the successful program America's Most Wanted.

On July 25, 2006, the Adam Walsh Act to protect the Innocent became law but the funding to implement the Act is slow in materializing. When interviewed about the Jaycee Lee Dugard case, Walsh said, "They [parole officers] absolutely have too much work. And we don't make sex offenders a priority."

To the question, "Why do you think you have such a hard time, in your view, getting the funding that you need, getting some of these laws passed?" Walsh said, "There is no lobby for raped women, for molested women... molested and raped children."

"Why? Because I don't know if it is not a high priority enough for men." (Words taken directly from the transcript of the Anderson Cooper show.) Like Larry King, Anderson Cooper missed a golden opportunity to explore this theory.

The men who have to make women and children a priority have been educated to regard women and children as objects, and to think only about themselves. In order for change to occur there has to be a conversation. The conversation won't start in a TV setting where the questions are on Teleprompters and the interviewers cannot deviate from the script.