I am baffled at how 32 boys could have possibly been murdered on these grounds and buried there and no one ever asked any questions. I know some of them were orphanes but many of them seemed to have been runaways, albeit, from bad situations but it sounds like they did have family. Didn't any of their famililes ask questions when their sons never returned from this school? Their sons just disappeared and they never looked for them? Surely some of them had families even with all their problems who cared about them. maybe not. How unbelievably sad.
I read some of the stories on the WHite House website and feel sick. How could these 'men' look at these little boys who were terrified, crying, begging, and then beat them so viciously and continue doing so while they tried to escape? And especially knowing that these boys had already had such a hard life.
How does a person get to that state? There have been many studies, one notable one was where normal college students were put into a situation simulating a prison where some were the guards and others prisoners and the results showed how quickly our psychology can change, how quickly we can adapt and embody the role we are expected to play yet it is still very hard to understand. I know each one of us thinks we are not capable of such cruelty, I know I think that about myself, but I bet if you asked those guards at the school, or the students who participated in the Stanford sponsored experiment, or completely average joe banker or lawyer turned Nazi officer at Aushwitz, or the guards at Abu Gharib or Gitmo before they were put into that situation they would have said with confidence they were not capable of such cruelty either. The human mind is fragile and can manipulated easily.
I was surprised to read Roger say he does not hold grudges against the men because they were doing a job and that is the frame of mind they put themselves into and Roger understands that. Personally I think I would have been holding a big grudge and a whole lot of anger towards these poeple.
I found it especially poignant to read him recall actually talking to one of the guards in 1999 on the phone and how at 72 yrs old the man joked with him, did not act uncomfortable and had seemed to forget or had chosen to forget what he had done some 40 yrs before to terrified little boys. Surely some of them, when they reflected back on their life and their time at the boys school had remorse for what they had done. It is hard to believe that all of the poeple involved at the school kept their mouths shut even yrs later - I would think that a few of them would have sought out some of the boys and apologized, asked for forgiveness but I guess more likely they had been telling themselves for yrs that the beatings were really spankings and no one really got hurt and those boys who disappeared just ran away.
I am not offer excuses at all. I find the psychology of it interesting but it never excuses their actions - they made the choice to do what they did, they could have said no, they could have left, they could have spoken out and they didn't. It will be interesting to see what the surviving officials at the school say about this. I wonder what they are thinking when they see these reports ont he news.
I think NoZme is right - having the abuse go public like this and seeing the abuse they suffered confirmed and acknowledged will help many of them to keep moving forward.
p.s. sorry i rambled on for so long........
