Sex Offender Registry and Sex Offender Laws and Why They Are Failing ALL of Us

I would like to begin this letter to my fellow citizens with a question: What are the first thoughts that pop into your minds when you hear the words “Sex Offender”? Child molester/predator, freak, outcast, monster? Someone who is incapable of ever changing, of rising above this label, and is someone always to be feared and watched with extreme prejudice? Ever heard the term, “Once an offender, always an offender”? These are people, who in the words of a particular politician in a recent news report, belong only in a place like Gitmo, far away from our “civilized” society. Separating them from our mainstream is the only way to keep our children and ourselves safe from these depraved and sick individuals. And in the wake of recent tragic events, the deaths of these precious children in our own backyards, has sent all of us into a frenzy of fear and panic. I understand this all to well, being the mother of three wonderful children, who are the center of my universe. I would go to the most extreme measures to see to it that they are always safe, as would any parent. You grew this wonderful life in your womb for 9 months, nurtured and loved your child for all their young life, and along comes the real boogeyman, snatches away and extinguishes the life of your child. There is no greater grief than the loss of a child, especially under such horrible circumstances. I pray every day to God that I am cold and dead in my grave long before my children are. What parent doesn’t?