Sugarcoating the Realities? Ten Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick tragedy, Chris Brown’s felony assault & Philip Garrido’s rape-release-kidnapping.

In the midst of the celebration of Ted Kennedy’s life, including the daylong CNN specials, I couldn’t help but think about an art assignment I had back in my teen years.

“Draw a caricature of a famous person,” my high school art teacher instructed my class.

For some reason, I came up with the idea of drawing Ted Kennedy. I can’t remember why, but I decided to sketch the political figure — in classic large-headed caricature style — sitting in a boat with a large grin on his face as he paddled away from a sinking car. It was my wry take on the 1969 Chappaquiddick tragedy.

Evidently, the “incident” as it now frequently called, boggled my teenage mind. That’s most likely because I, like many other people, didn’t feel that Kennedy’s punishment for leaving the scene of a fatal accident was sufficient.

I mentioned the assignment to a friend the other day. “I must have been really cynical back then,” I told her.

After thinking about it later, I thought about my comment. “What’s so cynical about expressing my thoughts about what I considered to be a lack of justice in the Chappaquiddick case?”

Though I don’t believe a person should be judged for their past mistakes for the rest of their lives, I also don’t believe we should sugarcoat reality.

Chris Brown

Today’s reality paints a picture some disturbing trends in crimes related to the victimization of women. Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty to felony assault, still gets to play the part of a celebrity by appearing on Larry King Live this week.

Then there's Philip Garrido, who was sentenced to 50 years to life in federal prison for the 1976 brutal rape and kidnapping of a woman in Nevada. The victim, who went through an 8-hour ordeal, thought the soonest Garrido would get out was 2006. Instead he was paroled in 1988 — three years before he kidnapped a little girl and held her for 18 years. I’m sure the question eventually will come up as to why a 50-year-to-life sentence was reduced to 11.

Philip Garrido

In the meantime, statistics indicate that there are thousands and thousands of other similar cases that will never hit the news. According to the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 1 in 6 women in her lifetime will be sexually assaulted. Only 6 percent of rapists will ever spend a day in jail, partly because 60 percent are never reported to law enforcement officials.

Also, 12 million women — 25 percent of the female population — will be abused in their lifetime, according to the Mental Health Journal.

It almost seems to be too much to hope for, but I wish the next generation of young girls could be presented with an entirely different picture of what their lives will be like — lives free from
violence and sexual assault.

What are your ideas on addressing the high rate of violence and sexual assault against women? Do you think there’s any chance of diminishing the numbers?

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by Shari Scales Finnell