Seated on the edge of the same coffee table where I watched Barack Obama lay victorious claim to the Presidency, I sat again this afternoon, gaping as John Walsh informed the media that the murder of his son had been solved.
Right off the bat, for those who believe that child protection laws are actually to protect kids and are by no means political, listen up and listen well. At the time of six-year-old Adam's death, my own daughter was one year of age. The boy's remains were found less than one hour from where I lived at the time.
Horrified by the murderer, the proximity and the fact that a few years later, I actually met Walsh on Paradise Island, the loss really stuck with me. As a mother, the incident was so real, for years, anytime I caught sight of the video games during at visit to Sears, I pulled my kids closer in remembrance.
So today, as the Walsh announcement pulled me in, I expected to hear that a DNA match had identified a killer.
When Ottis Toole was named, that's about the time my jaw dropped.
For long-time Floridians, this is not new information. For years, Toole had been assumed to have killed Adam. The jerk was so classy, he twisted the knife to the parents by confessing, recanting the confession, only to finally admit yeah, I did it.
Then he got off easy and died in prison. On his deathbed, Toole admitted to killing Adam.
I feel for the Walsh family. I really do. Even after all the families he has ruined through his hellbent intent to make someone-anyone--pay for his loss through the passage of the Adam Walsh Act (along with his pal, Mark Foley), I empathized with him.
My loved one--convicted for chatting online to a police officer who pretended to be 15 years old, his life, career, financial status and dreams ruined for one dumb move --felt the pain of the Walsh family.
Today, I was completely taken out of the closure moment that Walsh--I'm certain--had hoped to create. One thought kept buzzing through my head.
What is he up to?
Is Walsh washing his hands clean of his part in the creation of "sex offenders", not the vile Toole type, but those Americans who never touched anyone physically, much less a child, but engaged in some stupid behavior choice? (And believe me, those behaviors are numerous).
Is he stepping back as America learns that regular people register as sex offenders and those with power plea down or totally walk, like--once again--his pal, Mark Foley? Or perhaps Josh Lunsford, son of another Mark, who also took his guilt over his poor parenting to state legislatures throughout this country in the form of the Jessica Lunsford Act? Arrested and convicted for a sex offense worthy of registration, Josh Lunsford is another fine example of not what you know, but who you know.
Did John drive by the Julia Tuttle Causeway one day last summer to sight a hot, dirty, sweaty human being living under the bridge because residency restrictions prohibit that citizen from calling Miami home?
Is he sick at heart with the knowledge that he is responsible for young husbands who add "sex offender" to their resumes because too many years--as stipulated by lawmakers--stood between he and his wife while dating?
With the Democrats in power, does he realize that hate crimes legislation is most definitely right around the corner, hate crimes such as those planned by vigilantes who knock on the doors of those forced to register and murdering them where they stand because John played a part in the passage of legislation that required posting the address of the deceased--and their families--for any wingnut to view?
Is the writing on the wall as far as political funding for the ridiculous laws that keep no one safe but many concentrated behind unconstitutional fences? With a constitutional attorney ready to serve the public in the highest office in the land, has "someone" told Walsh to "wrap it up"?
What is Walsh's game?
What does he know that we don't know?
And is this the legacy Walsh leaves behind?
"He ended up really producing a generation of cautious and afraid kids who view all adults and strangers as a threat to them and it made parents extremely paranoid about the safety of their children," Mount Holyoke College sociologist and criminologist Richard Moran told the Associated Press.
Go home, John. Let Adam rest.
And let the rest of us be.
You've done enough.
