I did talk to Mercersburg’s attorney

Me, an old guy who remembered how it really was. Bootless as it turns out.

They cut up pretty rough with me. The headmistress(!) didn’t like my allegations. Grottlesex schools were awash with tales of decades-long, even traditions, of homosexual abuse. I knew Mercersburg wasn’t like that. The belated charges against Suerken seemed like a deliberate piling on, a way to be the vanguard of correcting the disease called prep.school. I said so. They were quick to sicc a lawyer on me, warning me of how many ways a school with a $100 million endowment could ruin my life. All I wanted was her admission that she was an accomplice in an unjust witch hunt.

So I called the attorney. She was, like the headmistress, female and unyielding. I concede I had only one objective. I knew they could ruin me. I have no money to fight and no allies to fall back on. 

Which I got. I don’t lose arguments with lawyers. I jollied her into admitting that Mercersburg had no evidence against Suerken that would stand up in a court of law. They had simply smeared the man after his death, because he was dead and couldn’t fight back, smoothly destroying his previously illustrious reputation for a few scraps of politically correct 21st century publicity. But I also learned that she didn’t really care, that nobody did, and my mission was doomed from the start. When nobody cares about justice, the justice-minded are impotent.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 19, 2021 at 7:36 PM

    I only just saw this. I was a fellow student of Paul's in the MALS program at Dartmouth and lived on the same floor as he did. I hold him in the highest regard. He played the violin at my wedding in 1978 and that is why I was looking him up nostalgically on this anniversary. zI adored this man and appreciated his encouragement when I was a beginning teacher. I kept in touch with him even when he had his accidents and am grieved to see these accusations agaisnt him. I so hope they are innocuous, but if they are not, I do hope that anyone who was hurt by forawrdness may find it in their heart to find forgivness. I can't imagine that Paul would assault anyone. If he did, I hope that you can find some peace and that you will realize that that was not your fault and that you can go forward with your life, I loved Paul deeply as a friend and am grieved by thesse revalations.

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