The arrest last week of a popular educator is an emotionally wrenching trauma for a significant portion of the community, not just for him and his family.

If he’s guilty of what the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force say he is, they’ve either stopped a budding deviant or just a mid-life crisis that strayed far afield from the norm, ruined his future and hampered the futures of many others.

Whatever the case, the community in general will need to rebound from severe disappointment. The good news is, it will.

Part of that rebound will include some self reflection. For institutions such as the school district, that will encompass everything from morale building to policy analysis. For us as individuals, it would not hurt to reflect on our own faults.

Society doesn’t do enough of that. We seem very quick to judge others, assuming we know all about their trials and personal pain. We all have it, and we all find different ways of dealing with it, but we do not know each others’ pain. Indeed, many of us spend much of our lives hiding from our own.

Somehow facing it, however, can produce strength and grace. Strength to forgive yourself for your own faults, and grace to forgive others for theirs.

Sometimes a lot of both is needed.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher