A while back while doing an interview for the LA Times about the issue with pedophiles in the Boy Scouts, I had the opportunity to review a lot of documentation about my father. One of the things I noted was that in 1983, one of the mothers of one of the scouts had filed a report with the local police department about my father molesting her son.

Recently, I reunited with a couple of the people I was in scouts with, and one of them told me it was his mother that made the report, but nothing ever came of it.  I had always wondered who that scout was, but never thought about it too much.  But I had always known my father had approached this boy (who was probably 11 or so at the time) but never put two and two together.

it is unfortunate that the police did nothing.  I was 15 at the time and really not sure how much it would have changed my life.  Well, that’s not true.  Had they come and arrested my father it would have changed things a lot.  But whether it would have been for the better I couldn’t really say.  I would guess ‘probably’, but I guess we never know what the overall impact would have been for things that could have happened in the past.  I DO believe it would have changed my sisters life for the better, and I think would have changed this boys life most definitely (he felt nobody believed him and that had a profound impact on his life as it would anybody).  But for me?  It’s an interesting question.

Not one I choose to dwell on though – after all, we can’t change the past, we can only shape our future.  But it is interesting to think about…