Yesterday another dear friend and I had ice cream with Jody and his children during their very brief visit to Savannah before returning to France. Ursula and I felt it was such a marvelous present on a wickedly--dare I use that word ?-hot afternoon .She and I were Sophie's and Noah's preschool teachers and had celebrated many milestones with their parents--learning to tie shoes , watching the kids learn to write their names , the birth of Eliza , etc. We also began an afternoon art program with another friend and the Jenkins children were our first students as were " Janet's " and " Rusty's". Never have we been so blessed as sharing innocent lives with such remarkable parents as these ! And then came the camping trip which I initally heard about from the mouths of their babies. My heart broke for them and their parents yet I never knew the full story until I read this article today. And now my heart breaks even more and my anger is in full swing ! From one who knows these couples and children as if they were my own family : how could this series of events have unfolded ? May they and others like them attacked by " well-knowing" strangers ( ha ! ) come to terms with such attrocities. Janis Lewis

Bill

If you were that worried about your innocent kids being naked around your best buddy, then you want to think seriously about whether he should be your best buddy. It's the same argument that some religious fundamentalists use to justify women covering their faces with burkas - the shame lies with the person with the "unpure" thoughts, not with the innocents. Find a best buddy who you don't think would see your kids as anything other than just kids. Unless you're saying that men just can't help themselves - which I, and a lot of other men, find pretty offensive

IM, London

A immigrated to this country a few years ago from Western Europe. I appreciate and respect the cultural differences, try to be aware of the things in common and the things different. Sexuality and things connected with it are one of the things that are handled different in the U.S. and Western Europe. It's not always clear if one way or the other is "better" or "right" or "wrong" - mostly different. Based on stories like this and some knowledge about what the prevalent view on the issue is, I am very reluctant to let my 3 year old run around naked, certainly anywhere near public sight. However, I find it sad that she grows up in an invironment where she can't play at the beach naked like I did at that age. The problem is that there is no connection to sexuality in this unless sick people make one. Yes, these sick people can be sexual predators who sadly exist. Those may be watching your dressed children at the mall as well by the way.

The other sick people making such connections are those from the pseudo-scientific world of child "services", psycho"logy" and other leftist, state centered ideologies that have taken over large parts of our educational and public "service" sector. They become willing actors in a game that is aimed at undermining and dismantel the values of the traditional family. If you want to teach your children that nudity is not a "bad" thing but needs to be handled according to rules, you're already in trouble.

Reading the statements from the hospital policies that are not based on an real life data, is sickening - almost as sickening as the real predators.

Let's face it: America has a problem with sexual behavior, more than for example Western European countries. Part of that problem is that we (and our society) teaches our kids fuzzy lines of what sexual behavior is and what is not. Playing on the beach naked is NOT sexual behavior. American seem obsessed with nudety and later make connections in non-sexual contexts. Sorry, a woman breast-feeding? Nothing less sexual than that. Sometimes a breast is just a breast and not a sexual object. And why the obsession with breasts and butts anyway? Why can't you see them on public TV but legs are ok? Well, it should all be "ok". And Janet Jackson's boobs (though not a pretty sight) do not, I repeat - do NOT corrupt our children. It's actually rather sad that she can use them as something to get attention here, while people in other cultures would just laugh about it.

Cultures, may I add, where the good old Sesamestreet opener during the theme song showed in one scene naked kids playing at a public pool between 1970something and 1990something without anybody making the weird connection of child pornography. Since I have some of the official German language Sesamestreet DVDs for my daughters with the original material including that opener, I sometimes wonder if I could be arrested for possesion of child endangering material.

Suburban mayor charged with child porn

July 25, 2006

BY ART PETERSON

Thomas Adams, longtime Green Oaks mayor and former chairman of the Lake County Republican Central Committee, was charged Monday with possession and distribution of child pornography.

Adams, 67, faces 11 counts of disseminating child pornography and two counts of possession. Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti set his bond at $100,000.

Prosecutor Patricia Fix said sheriff's and state's attorney's investigators first received tips on Adams' alleged illegal activities in March 2005. Adams allegedly sent child pornography, via attachments to e-mail, to undercover police in Clearwater, Fla.

The alleged pornography includes both still images and at least one explicit movie of a boy masturbating, Fix said.

Several phony names were used in his alleged pornography trading, she said, but all were tracked back to Adams' home in the 800 block of Anderson Drive in Green Oaks.

After being taken into custody, Adams acknowledged that all of the screen names were his and that no one else used his computer, Fix said, adding that Adams admitted he had "a problem with addiction."

Defense attorney Thomas Briscoe argued for a minimal bond, saying Adams "has no criminal record, and these are all images, there are no live victims." Briscoe added that Adams "has been involved with public service most of his life."

Sun-Times News Group