Seriously America, WTF?

By Gene X. Christian

Author’s note: This post takes a detour from religious debate to talk about the topic of sexual abuse.

It’s been more than a month since the United States Department of Justice was ordered to release the Epstein files in full (H.R. 4405), which was signed into law in November 2025.

As of this writing, the DOJ passed the mandated window, and the estimates are that about one percent of the files have been released. What has been released so far has been heavily redacted, although some internet sleuths have done well to use tools to un-redact some of them.

No matter how you look at it, the DOJ is breaking the law.

I’m going to talk about the one thing that I’d rather not talk about. I am going to be a little vulnerable, and I’m going to be a lot angry.

And amazingly enough, this doesn’t have hardly anything to do with any kind of religious belief. Well, maybe.

Violation

It’s been about a decade since this happened, when we lived in another city, in another state, in another house, and in a time that seems so long ago.

Like good parents, we forced our children to get off screens and make them go outside. We feel it’s important to get some sun, some fresh air, and get the body moving, and we were living in an area of cul-de-sac clusters that, fortunately for us, had other children that our children could play with.

Fortunately, or so we thought.

One morning one of my children came bouncing down the stairs and sat at the table for breakfast. As we were sitting there around the table, she nonchalantly mentioned that one of the neighborhood boys touched her down there.

At first, we weren’t sure what we were hearing. She was very young then, so we quizzed her to make sure we understood what she was saying. Unfortunately, it was true. One of the boys on the street — who was a few years older than her (but still a minor) had molested her.

Dear reader, I hope you never have to experience something like this. I know all too well that it’s happened many times to many people. As a parent, I was in shock of what to do next.

I was instantly reminded of a time when I was a young boy and one of the older kids in the neighborhood tried to get me to take down my pants for him. I didn’t, and told my dad about it later that day. Dad walked over a few houses down to where that boy lived (he was much older), and had a discussion with the boy’s father about that incident.

Dad must have said something that scared the shit out of him, because I never saw him again. Even though he lived a block away, it was like he didn’t even live in the same town anymore.

And now, there I was, in a similar situation. The cycle of violation repeats.

No justice

Before long, there was police involved. Questions, interviews, discussions with the principal at the school she attended so that my kid and that boy weren’t in the same room together. And every day, I would have to drive past the house of the boy who violated one of my kids. I hated that. I hated him. I hated their whole family. I didn’t even want to live there anymore. I just wanted to go away.

After a time, the incident made its way into the courts, and we had our day. I wanted the boy to go away — far, far away — and serve out his time until he reached adulthood in some sort of juvenile correctional facility. That’s what I expected would happen.

The judge didn’t see it that way.

No, I sat in that courtroom as the judge heard the case and made a ruling. The boy would get months of counseling and some type of probation. It was his first offense, and he was just young enough to not be tried as an adult, but old enough to absolutely know what he was doing. In fact, he planned to do it again to my daughter, but fortunately that plan never came to fruition.

But what came next, I have never fully gotten over. The judge decided against a harsher punishment because, hands to gods, he didn’t want to “harm the boy’s chances of playing football as he grew older.”

As I sat there in the courtroom, I was in shock. You don’t want to harm the boy’s chances of playing football? What? WHAT?

I have tried hard to bury the anger I felt that day. It’s a wound that will never heal. Today, my daughter is doing very well but dad, not so much.

At least now it’s starting to make sense.

No peace

The problem is that the United States does not care about justice, especially when a woman is violated. As in allegations from the story of Sascha Riley, we can include men in that negligence of justice as well. As my own government delays the release of the files, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know why they are dragging their feet. It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to drum up ideas of why it wouldn’t want those files to see the light of day. In fact, it’s quite simple.

There are the worst things imaginable in those files, and the people involved include people from all parties from all walks of life: government, industry, the church, and more.

So far, those involved are getting away with it.

I simply have one question for my fellow Americans: seriously, what the fuck? Why do we allow this to persist?

It’s so dystopian to go through life knowing that justice cannot truly prevail. Those poor children. Trafficked, used as toys against their will, and discarded like an old t-shirt by people with power and money.

The people you have trusted cannot be trusted ever again. Our government is complicit. The courts are in on the action. Hell, from my own experience it seems that the rabbit hole goes deep; even to the lowest county courts where judges allow it to flourish. Religious institutions are no safe haven as we’ve learned. They’re also in on the action.

All these institutions are corrupt to the core. We the People should be doing more to shine light on the darkness. I know many are trying, but it’s not enough. We simply are not doing enough, together, to fix this.

Every day that passes where justice has failed, where the corrupt go unpunished, where the institutions are not radically transformed, where the people care more about their sports teams, celebrities and fast fashion than they do about something that could impact them at any time, I weep inside.

My heart aches for anyone who has experienced this. My anger burns for anyone who voted for this. My brain melts because it often feels like no one gives a shit.

I no longer believe in any gods, but I cannot help but quote the Rev. Jeremiah Wright from his 2003 sermon, “Confusing God and Government.”

“Not God bless America, God damn America — that’s in the Bible — for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating her citizens as less than human.”

God didn’t damn America. We do it every day We the People allow this to continue.

Published on 2026-01-20

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