One nightmare is over

I have not discussed the Duke Lacrosse issue, mostly because so many others who were closer to the situation have covered it so very well. However, now that it is done I am wondering what will happen next. What will happen to the three young men whose lives were torn apart for the last 13 months? How will they get their lives and their reputations back?

"Mr. Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David F. Evans no longer face the threat of prison time. But after spending a year vilified as symbols of racism, sexism, and class privilege, they cannot return to their lives of 13 months ago, before the fateful off-campus party.

What will happen to the coach who resigned under pressure? Who will give him his livelyhood back?

"Mr. Evans, his voice breaking at one point, said the players were "just as innocent today as we were back then. Nothing has changed. The facts don't change."
The Bethesda-raised player also got emotional when thanking coach Mike Pressler, who resigned less than a month after the party, saying his coach sacrificed everything. "Sixteen years he spent building up a team to fall on a sword so that we could continue as a team at the university he loved," Mr. Evans said. "We owe him everything."
At a press conference in Rhode Island, the former Duke coach struggled to contain his emotion when asked about Mr. Evans' comments. "A lot was taken from us," Mr. Pressler said. "

Will the teachers and students who convicted these students before the legal process even got started apologize to the students?

"After initial press reports of the March 13, 2006, incident, Duke's lacrosse team was denounced by several commentators -- including Raleigh News & Observer columnist Ruth Sheehan, who urged the university to "shut down" its lacrosse program. Durham Mayor Bill Bell made a similar demand. The university did exactly that -- suspending and then canceling the season for the lacrosse team. Duke students and faculty members also condemned the lacrosse program. English professor Houston A. Baker Jr. accused the university of fostering a "culture of silence that seeks to protect white, male, athletic violence," and 88 faculty members signed a full-page ad in the Duke student newspaper calling the incident a "social disaster." At one of a string of campus protests, Duke student Meenakshi Chivukula said she was "outraged that legal rights are used to quiet this issue." According to a Raleigh News & Observer account, a poster at that same demonstration read: "The DNA will talk, even if the cowards of men's lacrosse won't."

And when the DNA DID talk and it said that the lacrosse players did NOT have sex with the accuser, where were the apologies?

These young men were treated horribly by the University, the DA's office and the Raleigh/Durham community. Where are all of the cries of outrage at the way that these athletes were treated?

At least Don Imus apologized. I doubt these young men will ever get the same - and they certainly deserve it as much as the Rutgers ladies basketball team does.