Remember hide and seek? I played it when I was young. I remember my friend Warren always hid in the same place. Sad.
Adults play the game, too. When they play they tend to leave out the second part, the seeking. Being older and creative, they add another wrinkle to the rules. It's called catch and kill. If discovered by someone other than the seeker, they offer incentives to buy silence. Hush money is the norm, but physical, personal, or family threats also are commonly employed.
The mobster Al Capone called those he thought were hidden hiders stool pigeons, squealers, or rats. President Donald Trump calls them flippers.
This adult version has gone viral. Legitimate institutions and organizations are now active players. David Pecker, CEO of National Enquirer, plays and paid hush money to both a doorman at a Trump tower and to a Playboy model he was letting in and out in her visits to Trump's penthouse suite. Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, found a way to catch and kill porn star Stormy Daniels' relationship with then-candidate Trump.
The Catholic Church is another active player. It has played for decades and added its own wrinkle to the game: transfer and repeat. Church leaders simply pay hush money, transfer a pedophile priest, and then allow that priest to repeat the process. They even created their own playbook on gaming the game. They then apparently shared those strategies within their own ranks. Pope Francis, an up-and-coming Catholic reformer, is now suspected of being a gamer. Secular authorities are actively seeking legal means to open wide their Catholic hide-and-go-seek playbook.
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I thank those people who openly chose to be seekers rather than hiders. Sen. John McCain was a wonderful and timely needed example of such people. Hiders never liked him.
Dave Griffin
Duluth
