It’s hard to know where to begin to pick up all the pieces following revelations that Karl Ward, one of our town’s most honored citizens, sexually abused young people, perhaps for years.
Certainly our town failed to protect some of its most innocent and vulnerable members, who paid a terrible price for our lack of vigilance.
That hurts, but it does not begin to approach the pain suffered silently by Ward’s victims for decades.
As ostensibly small as the gesture may seem so many years later, the Haines Borough government must apologize to the people hurt by Ward. Ward was near the top of our government and while leaders today are assumed to be removed by time from complicity in these crimes, we represent the government of the same town that enabled Ward’s actions by putting him in a position of power.
We cannot neatly separate ourselves from his abuse of that power.
We must apologize and vow that we’ll ensure that nothing like this happens again. We must demonstrate to Ward’s living victims that we now have safeguards and processes in place to keep the most powerful among us from taking such advantage of the powerless.
We must diligently maintain or develop programs or services that empower our citizens – young and old – to defend themselves against physical aggression, and to understand that such behavior is not innocent, funny, understandable or legal.
We must promise ourselves in our daily lives to fault on the side of safety, to watch closely our own actions and the actions of others, particularly in situations when people in power wield authority or influence over others.
It seems that there is so much more that needs to be done to address this terrible wound in our community so that it may heal. This would be a start.