The PDN news reported today that Governor Eddie Calvo has commuted the sentences of three more convicted child molesters in preparation to deport them back to my home country of the FSM. These will join the 68 convicts the governor has already released and deported to the FSM. The PDN had also reported that Chuuk’s Senator Nelson Stephen supported these actions. This is an open letter to both leaders and all those who support the release of child molesters into the community.
Dear Governor Calvo and Senator Stephen,
As an FSM citizen, a Chuukese father and a supporter of the global #MeToo Movement, I consider your actions deplorable, a misplaced sense of justice, and inhumane for the children who will undoubtedly become victims of these convicts you are about to release back into our community.
In today’s hyper sensitivity to victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church particularly in Guam, you have the nerve to release three more child molesters back into the community unchecked, unchained, uncounseled, and unreported? Would you dare commute the sentences of priests and an archbishop who have been convicted of molesting altar boys and release them put them back into the parishes where they will surely victimize more children? If not, then why are you doing this to the children of Chuuk?
What about justice for the child victims? By freeing these molesters, you are in fact letting them off the hook; they are free to live their lives while the victims have to live with the trauma of sexual violence. No child victim deserve to know their molesters have been prematurely freed from prison to harm other children. How dare you sell out the safety of children to save a few bucks of prison cost?
How can you sleep at night knowing that you are putting more children at risk by releasing these child molesters into their midst with no accountability measures? Will you accept the responsibility when these molesters rape someone else’s child in Micronesia?
As has been said of McCarthyism and Trumpism, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”
And Senator Stephen Nelson…I have great respect for you, but your support of the governor’s actions of deporting now 68 convicts to their homelands mostly in the FSM is unnerving to say the least. How can you, a Chuukese elected elder, acquiesce your duties to the children of Chuuk by letting the governor of a small US territory import his convicted child molesters to our good state?
What happened to the strength of the Chuukese warrior in you to fight this injustice legally, morally, ethically, legislatively? The governor’s desire to save a few cents in prison cost in Guam will cost our innocent children their lives, safety, and childhood when those criminals act out their twisted minds in the FSM. We cannot let the governor accept our tax dollars and the lives of Micronesian soldiers who have given their lives in the US military. Yet, choose prison cost to endanger the lives of Micronesian children. That is simply not right.
Ou fori wisemi ngeni aramesen Chuuk! Ousapw mutngeni ena umwesin kepina epwe afeiengawa semiritin fonuach Chuuk.
Dr. Vid Raatior
Dr. Vid Raatior is a proud Chuukese parent, educator, citizen blogger, and social entrepreneur living in the US.
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