Someone speaks out on behalf of Neil Goldschmidt's victim. Her name was Elizabeth Dunham, and with the help of a bunch of other "leaders," ...

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... he destroyed her life.

Here's an editorial that tells about what happened... the others who knew, including now Congressman Earl Bloominidiot (Blumenaur) and yet who did nothing.

Elizabeth died around a month ago. And the summary of her story and the double-standard of those who KNEW, but did nothing, is in the Register Guard's guest viewpoint editorial today.

I didn't know of Elizabeth. But I have a clue as to what she felt.

Here's the story:

GUEST VIEWPOINT: See no evil

Many looked the other way when they learned of Neil Goldschmidt’s crimes

By Fred Leonhardt

For The Register-Guard

Published: Sunday, Feb 13, 2011 05:00AM

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Ursula Le Guin’s story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” is set in the ultimate Shining City on a Hill, a place of joy and happiness, full of educated, creative types who spend their days frolicking at festivals and occasionally indulging in (non-habit-forming) drugs that reveal the secrets of the universe while “exciting the pleasure of sex beyond all belief.”

There are “fast little trains and double-decked trams” in Omelas. And a farmers’ market.

There’s just one catch — the “happiness, the beauty of their city” depends on a single child being locked away in a tiny room, kept in darkness, isolation and misery:

“If the child were brought up into the sunlight, … all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed. ... The child’s torture is no secret. The good people of Omelas know.”

Portland is Omelas. Maybe all of Oregon is Omelas. And the child upon whose cruel treatment the people’s happiness depended was a 14-year-old girl, the victim of long-term sexual abuse by Neil Goldschmidt, who served as mayor of Portland and governor of Oregon.

Goldschmidt’s crimes came to light in 2004, decades after the abuse began. The statute of limitations protected him from prosecution.

Goldschmidt has vanished from Oregon’s political scene, at least for now, but public attention focused once more on his offenses when his victim died on Jan. 16 in a Portland hospice of undisclosed causes at age 49. Her short life was full of suffering, in large measure because of Goldschmidt — but also because of the people of Omelas.

Over Spanish coffees at Huber’s Cafe in Portland in late 1994, a friend and colleague from Goldschmidt’s governor’s office told me a story about a girl he had dated occasionally back in the 1970s. She was 14, and he was 16. One night, as he walked up to her front door, he heard music. He stood quietly and watched through the window as the girl danced about the living room. She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen.

She confided in him that she and then-Mayor Goldschmidt were having sex. He went to his parents, who knew and admired Goldschmidt. The girl was crazy, they said. Ignore her. Neil’s a great man.

In May 2004, on the day Neil’s criminal past was finally revealed, my friend called me. He said it was a shame the story had come out: “Look at all the terrific things he did for Portland and Oregon.”

He would later tell The Oregonian “he was stunned to learn of Goldschmidt’s secret.”

“Obviously,” he said, “this is something that has troubled (Neil) forever.”

“There may not even be a kind word spoken to the child.”

Neil’s rape victim looked older than 14, his defenders like to say. One told me, “I teach 14-year-old girls. I know what they’re like.”

And, “She was a (14 year old) sexual predator who trapped poor, dumb (Very married) Neil.”

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So, Oregonians... what are you going to do about it?

I, for one, wonder how many other of our "leaders" are doing the same thing.

But how do you hold those who "knew" and did NOTHING accountable?

By re-electing them?

You have the government you deserve.

But did Elizabeth?
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