How about a Sam Adams?

The USA Today newspaper reports that an appeals court in Washington state confirmed that state law does not bar teachers from having consensual sex with 18 year old students as they are not minors. Holy shit. Do these judges/people think? Could there be an extraordinary environment created in a school setting between an adult educator/mentor/parental figure/leader and a student that offers an exceptional opportunity for an adult to prey on an unsuspecting, possibly innocent, needy, approval-seeking teenager?

There is a state code of conduct prohibiting sex between educators and students so one can be fired and assumedly the subject of a civil suit but there's no criminality.

Reportedly some Washington legislators are attempting to address the "loophole" in the law and will be presenting legislation to invoke a prison sentence for violators.

Has the mayor of Portland conducted himself within the parameters of the law? Perhaps, but is his conduct that of a leader and mentor of young men and women - 17 or 18 - there's a legal difference but the public deserves and expects more of its leaders.

On to some favorite quotes:

John Adams - In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.

Charles McMoran Wilson (Doctor to Winston Churchill) - Courage is a moral quality; it is not a chance gift of nature like an aptitude for games. It is a cold choice between two alternatives, the fixed resolve not to quit; an act of renunciation which must be be made not once but many times by the power of the will.

Ya think there's any relationship between these messages?