Everyone has been talking about the upsetting story about a woman being raped behind a dumpster at Stanford and her rapist, Brock Turner, only getting a six month sentence to county jail. There has also been talk about the letter that she wrote, and that Brock Turner's father wrote to the judge on the case, Judge Aaron Persky. In this letter, Mr. Turner is trying to show his son's character and that he never meant to do this unspeakable act to this poor woman. Among other things, Mr. Turner states that his son shouldn't be punished too harshly for "20 minutes of action" and that he has never been violent, even on the day he raped this woman, and that this was a misrepresentation of his character. A man wrote a response to this letter, "To Brock Turner's Father, From Another Father" and it is definitely something worth reading.
In this letter, John Pavlovitz is showing how Brock's father should have reacted. He states, "As a father who dearly loves my son as much as you must love yours: Brock is not the victim here. His victim is the victim. She is the wounded one. He is the damager." These lines struck me hard, because this is something that Brock's father simply doesn't see. He truly believes that his son is the victim in this case. The rest of this letter is saying how Pavlovitz understands that Turner was trying to do, but it doesn't make up for the fact that he raped someone. It's also used as a teaching device, by saying that Turner should love his son enough to punish him and make him realize what he did wrong.
I'm so happy that someone wrote this letter, and that someone finally understands that it's wrong that Brock should be the one receiving the sympathy here. Yes, it sucks that he is now a registered sex offender, but he raped someone. If he has been a older man, with no future of being an olympic athlete, there would be no question whether this man deserved the brief time in jail. This boy does not deserve special treatment because he is young, or because he attended Stanford, or because he was a great athlete. These are not things to excuse someone of a crime, especially one like rape and sexual assault.
I would just like to say thank you to the man who wrote this letter back to Brock Turner's father. Everything in this was perfectly said and it all needed to be said.
The link to the article mentioned above: http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/06/06/to-brock-turners-father-from-another-father/
