{"id":31131,"date":"2016-09-02T08:03:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T15:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/empire-editorial-focus-on-munozs-letters-misses-the-point\/"},"modified":"2016-09-02T08:03:18","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T15:03:18","slug":"empire-editorial-focus-on-munozs-letters-misses-the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/opinion\/empire-editorial-focus-on-munozs-letters-misses-the-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Empire Editorial: Focus on Munoz’s letters misses the point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Cathy Mu\u00f1oz has been the subject of much criticism as of late. Now, she deserves a little praise.<\/p>\n

In an Aug. 21 editorial, the Juneau Empire asked the Mendenhall Valley Republican to disavow two letters written on behalf of felons involved in child sex abuse cases. This week, Mu\u00f1oz did just that by issuing a public apology.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The letters) unintentionally caused pain to victims of sexual abuse and for that, I sincerely apologize,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

It takes courage to admit when you\u2019re wrong, and that\u2019s especially true when making amends to an entire community. This is the course we asked Mu\u00f1oz to take when her letters of support for Mary Chessica Hauge and Thomas Jack Jr. became known. The silver lining, if there is one, is that Mu\u00f1oz now says she\u2019s recommitting herself toward helping victims of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis experience has strengthened my resolve to help create safe havens for victims to come forward \u2026,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

[Mu\u00f1oz can’t ‘remove’ letters supporting child abusers<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Commenters on the Empire\u2019s Facebook page aren\u2019t accepting the apology. Some of them believe it is hollow. Only Mu\u00f1oz knows for sure.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re willing to accept it.<\/p>\n

The reason for the apology isn\u2019t as important as the result. Mu\u00f1oz admitted a mistake and says she has learned from it. We\u2019ll take her at her word. There\u2019s no point in demanding a public apology only to criticize that apology when it\u2019s given.<\/p>\n

If what constituents seek is perfection in their elected leaders, they will always be in for a letdown. People stumble and pick themselves back up. That\u2019s how we learn and grow, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing now in Mu\u00f1oz\u2019s public apology.<\/p>\n

The letters are certainly cause for concern, but Mu\u00f1oz isn\u2019t the chief issue here. The rate of sexual abuse and assault in Alaska \u2014 particularly against children \u2014 is the issue here.<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1oz\u2019s original letters were a symptom of the statewide mental ignorance that has allowed sexual abuse and assault to become such a problem.<\/p>\n

Do not forget that 14 other people wrote letters in support of Mary Chessica Hauge and Thomas Jack Jr. We have not yet seen recantations from these people. There are thousands more Alaskans who didn\u2019t write letters but have ideas similar to those of the letter-writers. They are willing to overlook the evil and improper actions of friends.<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1oz has accomplished a great deal during her time in office, but if she makes a solid effort to solve Alaska\u2019s problem of abuse, that may be her greatest achievement.<\/p>\n

We, like Mu\u00f1oz, must realize that there is no excuse for abuse. Good actions do not excuse evil deeds.<\/p>\n

The first step is admitting there is a problem. Mu\u00f1oz did that. Others must make that step, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Cathy Mu\u00f1oz has been the subject of much criticism as of late. Now, she deserves a little praise. In an Aug. 21 editorial, the Juneau Empire asked the Mendenhall Valley Republican to disavow two letters written on behalf of felons involved in child sex abuse cases. This week, Mu\u00f1oz did just that by issuing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31131"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}