Our good friend, Jeffrey Epstein

We all know somebody like Jeffrey Epstein.

Not exactly like Jeffrey Epstein, I hope, but the reality is that he was of a type we all encounter in life.

He achieved success by leveraging people and cutting corners, using the appearance of success to draw the new connections that made him more successful. He was such a consistent manipulator that even his good friends knew not to trust him too much. They saw him cheat other people and they vowed they would not be so dumb as to allow the same fate for themselves, but that didn’t stop them from showing up at the party. It was fun and exciting and they wanted to be among the lucky few.

We all know somebody like that. They probably aren’t in the same circles as Epstein and Wexner and Trump, of course. Maybe they skated through high school on their looks or maybe they were hotshots on the playing field. Maybe their folks had a ton of money and they threw great parties or they had a job at a company where everyone wanted to work. Along the way, they got away with pretty much everything.

However, they got there, they were, are, and always will be the kind of people we swear (to God!!!!) we will never become. And yet, we all make the choice to stay in their orbit, despite our misgivings or revulsion at their character. Character is the key word here, because the same story repeats at all income levels, in all nations, among all faiths and ethnicities. Almost anyone, offered an invitation to hobnob with the rich and famous, would leap at the chance. It’s hypocritical to claim we aren’t like that, because we are.

Still, all the discussion about Epstein’s business dealings and who was on his jet and who his clients were is absolutely meaningless to me, a smoke-screen that distracts from the one thing that matters: sex trafficking. Hundreds or thousands of women and children have been shattered and I want to see their abusers tried, convicted and sentenced. If the statute of limitations precludes trial, I want them to be pariahs wherever they go. I want them to suffer for the rest of their lives the way they have created lifelong pain for the children and adults they scarred.

This is the big bright line in the Epstein saga, the line that cannot be erased. Stories about jets and parties and deals gone wrong are a diversion that protects the guilty. They connect to us as people, people who know and tolerate someone like Epstein. They allow us to forget the chronicles of lives destroyed.

On the political front—and what front isn’t political right now—this is a scandal to tarnish the enemy while protecting anyone on our side. It’s the Golden Age of Hypocrisy, brought to you by whoever is turning the levers of power. Right now, it’s the Republicans who own the Mark of Cain and they are accepting the diversionary challenge with relish.  In Washington, on social media, it’s a battle of memes and sound bites, both real and AImagined.

Lost in those sound bites is the bitter truth. This is about crime. Everything else is a shiny ball that distracts us from the singular focus that is the least we owe to the victims.

Every so often, there aren’t two sides to a story.
 
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