One of my favorite shows on TV today is Law & Order: SVU. That is the one show I look forward to every chance I get. It grips me somehow, and it’s very creative at times.
However, I find myself disgusted at every sex offender that shows up on the show. Even my boy Ludacris made a cameo on the show, and I was disgusted at his character. But it seems that there are more sex offenders coming out of the woodwork that are famous. One of the most "shocking" offenders was none other than R. Kelly. Many people, for some strange reason, never thought of him as a sex offender. Need I remind you that he did marry Aaliyah when she was a teenager? Yet, while he allegedly molested a teenager on tape, he hasn’t been tried or convicted. This angers me. Why is it that a famous sex offender gets an easier break than regular sex offenders? Just because they are famous, they get to have a trial that takes over three years to put together. The first story about R. Kelly broke on June 6, 2002. It has been over four years, and there still isn’t a verdict in that case. My guess is that R. Kelly owns so much of Chi-town that he bought off everybody. The reason I brought R. Kelly up is because there is a former U.S. representative going through his own nasty molestation scandal. Former Representative Mark Foley has been accused of exchanging sexual e-mails and instant messages with male minors. Foley resigned immediately after the story broke, basically showing guilt of some form. Now, Foley has come up with every excuse in the book to get off, whether the excuse is credible or not. Foley claims he was battling alcoholism, even though several relatives have no memory of him drinking (including his brother). He has even gone as far as accusing a clergyman of molesting him when he was 13 to 15. Foley is said to be apologetic for his actions and that he was battling a mental illness of some sort. Please! If you were battling some mental illness or alcoholism, you knew molesting minors was wrong. You also could’ve told whoever was helping you that you had this problem. The sad thing is that Foley "continues to offer no excuse whatsoever for his conduct." I’m sorry, but isn’t saying that you had a drinking problem and a mental illness considered an excuse? This man is lying on each different day of the press coverage. Bottom line…I don’t want another R. Kelly. Remember how the R. Kelly saga was covered every day for a while and it slowly disappeared? We don’t need this to happen to this case. Let’s go on and get this taken care of, before it becomes forgotten like that loose change in your couch…Darryl Smith is a senior mass communication major from Monroe.