'All that is necessary...

...for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.' (Edmund Burke)

The Potty Diaries is not usually a contentious blog. I use it to practise my writing, record amusing or significant events in my family life, and occasionally to witter on about stuff that bothers me but is probably not of much interest to anyone else.

However, I've been watching what's been happening in the public arena with regard to comments and attitudes on the Roman Polanski case with interest and a certain amount of disbelief. I'm not going to go into details on the history of all this; they are a matter of public record, and irrefutable. Hell, the man pleaded guilty to raping a thirteen year old girl. That's guilty. As in 'I did it.'

Apparantly however, there are a large number of people who think that because, after admitting his guilt, Roman Polanski ran away and didn't go home for years, because he has had a number of tragedies in his personal life (none of which I want to diminish, they were diabolical, no doubt about it), and because - poor diddums - he didn't even get to go home to collect his Oscar in case he got banged up as a result, we should put the events that happened 1977 behind us and move on.

Now, I'm well aware that the quote I've used to title this post is dramatic, and can be used with reference to any number of news stories circulating today with even more relevance. But consider what Noble Savage writes on her post 'This is what rape apology looks like':

'If Polanski doesn’t end up serving his sentence I (and countless other girls and women) will have completely lost any last, teeny-tiny shred of hope that rape would ever be taken seriously in the eyes of the law, and our society.'

Take a look at her two posts to-date on this subject, and see whether you still feel comfortable with consigning this debate to la-la land and dismissing it as something that happened somewhere else and which isn't relevant to your life.

Then ask yourself whether you're happy for the great and the good of Hollywood, who have never experienced the pain and humiliation that the 13 year old girl in question did (and, please God, never will), to be the only ones who's voices who are being heard, speaking out - in Polanski's favour, no less - on this issue.

I'm not.