Comments on diverse grads, the recent rape and attack and
mortgage woes
Photographs of four 2007 graduates smile at me from atop my piano. Curiously, the four faces belong to graduates of four distinct educational experiences: one private high school, one public high school – Go, Mustangs! –, one home school, and one university.
The Valley Christian graduate is going on a missions trip to a refugee camp in Tanzania in Africa this summer, then matriculating at Point Loma this fall to study biology as a pre-med.
The GHS graduate is bound for UC Davis in the fall. The homeschool graduate will begin his freshman year of engineering studies at Gavilan.
And the Biola University graduate, our son Oliver, with his Bachelors of Fine Arts in art and design and his minor in theology, cum laude, is looking for a full-time job to augment his freelance work. His goal is to pay off his student loans so he can go on for an MFA.
Good luck to all Gilroy’s graduates. May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.
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I hope that by the time this column sees print, the front-page headline will scream “RAPIST CAPTURED.” Or maybe “(Alleged) RAPIST CAPTURED” – innocent till proven guilty. Or, even better, “RAPIST KILLED,” with a subtitle, “DNA matches.”
In the meantime, let me offer my sympathy to the victims of this cowardly scumbag, my heartiest congratulations to the young woman who kicked him in the groin and fought him off, and my deepest thanks to all three for reporting the attacks.
Too many rapes go unreported. The victims feel humiliated; they don’t want anyone to know. So the perpetrator is left free. And rapists are repeaters. When a rape is not reported, other women are not warned, and the rapist has the opportunity to strike again, and again …
So thank you, thank you for reporting this outrage. You have been courageous and responsible. Thank you.
The Dispatch printed a good sidebar on rape prevention techniques on Thursday, May 24. Don’t walk alone. Fight back, scream, listen to your gut, take a self defense class. I have one more general suggestion and two specific ones.
In general: be aware of your surroundings.
Specifically: don’t wear headphones while walking. This coward sneaks up behind a woman and hits her over the head. Don’t deprive yourself of your sense of hearing.
Also specifically: don’t get snockered at parties. If you go to a party, go with girlfriends you can trust to look out for you. You look out for them.
A rapist looks for privacy and control. He can get complete control by slipping some GHB into your 7-Up. Or he can get complete privacy if a woman is alone. Our rapist uses a combination technique: he looks for enough privacy to concuss his victim, then he has control.
A woman stays safe by staying in public or in control. Be aware, be smart, be strong, be safe.
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Thieves and cheats and frauds are not nearly as bad as rapists. But a person who talks people into signing documents in a language they don’t understand, who lies to them about what the documents say, so they take out home loans they can’t pay back and lose their down payments in foreclosure, such a person is a liar and a thief and a fraud.
These are the alleged crimes of Maria Avila, according to two couples: the Romero-Garcias of Gilroy and the Ramirezes of Hollister, a repairman, farmworkers. They trusted her because she spoke Spanish. She allegedly betrayed their trust.
Granted, the Romero-Garcia couple is not sinless in this case. They claim Avila coached them to lie to the mortgage company about their incomes and occupations. Still, she could not force them to lie; they chose to do so for their desperate dream of homeownership.
But they are paying for that lie now: thousands of dollars of debt. And Maria Avila allegedly walked away with $28,700 in real estate fees.
There is a special circle of hell for people who betray their kindred.
Cynthia Anne Walker is a homeschooling mother of three and former engineer. She is a published independent author. Her column is published in The Dispatch every week.
