Our sense of moral outrage may be down for the count

Comes now before us, America’s latest “love” story.

If the gods have smiled upon you and you’ve managed to miss the recent announcement, I’ll bring you up to speed.

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau will soon be wed. They’ve set a date in April and even have a wedding registry set up at Macy’s.

Normal thing for a normal couple – were this was a normal situation.

Unfortunately, hanging the trappings of normalcy – gifts of toasters and flatware and mixers and whatnot – around this train wreck of a relationship isn’t going to pretty it up. You couldn’t pretty this one up in a month of Sundays using all the trappings in the world.

Do remember that what we have here is a case where, back in 1996, a then 34-year-old woman entered into a “relationship” with a 12-year-old boy and got herself pregnant. That, gentle reader, is known as child rape.

She did this while already having a husband and four kids of her own. For so doing, she ended up going to jail for six months, being released, seeing the young boy again, getting pregnant again, and going back to jail for seven or so years.

The scorecard tells us that they’ve got two kids. It says that the boy is now 22, didn’t finish high school, and is currently unemployed.

The scorecard also says that, at the top of the batting order, there’s a woman (also unemployed) who’s downright frightening when she’s around young boys.

My opinion only. That and a buck or so gets you a cup of coffee.

Still, I’d be willing to bet that if you looked up the word “normal” in any dictionary, Mary Kay Letourneau’s picture wouldn’t be anywhere on that page. There are, however, those who’d have us believe that this story reads like one of the great, star-crossed romances in literature. Sorry, but anyone who’s watched this performance and reached that conclusion may want to check those ages again. Woman: 34. Boy: 12.

So, you’re telling me that it’s OK for an adult woman to have a child with (rape) a 12-year-old boy? I’m sorry, I must’ve missed it. What planet did you say you were from?

It is a story, though. Just don’t tie the word “love” to it. Sick fits. Perverted works. Sordid passes muster too. Love, however, doesn’t apply.

Unfortunately, it’s just one more thing we’re going to have to hold our noses and get past.

Part of the ongoing scene these days.

Quite a place we’ve reached as a society. We’re here, though, and maybe it’s time we took a good look around.

Have you noticed any discouraging trends? Detected a certain coarseness that wasn’t here before? Found that foul language seems a lot more common? Seen more rudeness and discourtesy than you remember from your childhood? Noticed that pedophiles haunt the Internet and pornography is but a click away? Seen where sex offenders are often released into society (see: May Kay Letourneau) to offend again?

Have you observed that the vulgar is commonplace? Sensed a reluctance to call wickedness and immorality by their names for fear of being brought up before the politically correct and publicly humiliated?

Does it seem as if the folks in charge of entertainment keep looking for bottom and, when they find it, break out shovels to dig even deeper? If not, think back to the Super Bowl “show” of a year or so ago wherein we were all treated to the spectacle of two boobs presenting a third in living color.

With all of the above going on, it’s pretty easy to understand how it is that our sense of moral outrage has been beaten into near submission. But, if you take a second look at those ages, this is a story that has the capacity to appall.

I know. I know. I’m just being judgmental, insensitive, unfeeling, and a whole raft of other things that are evil and pernicious to no end.

It just seems that we’re on pace to reach some kind of goal that’s not really worth reaching.

We keep ignoring the warning signs that we all see and, then, wonder why things like this “love” story are happening.

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau are getting married.

You can bet there’s a book coming followed closely by (Lord help us) a movie.

And before we can stop gagging over this one, we’ll be moved along the next grotesquerie without missing a step.

Scary as all hell, isn’t it?

Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Comments can be sent to larrysim@att.net.