Columnist makes connection between victims of Knight, child abusers

Indiana University finally fired Coach Bob Knight.

      It's the lead story in most of the morning's newspapers.

      One of Iowa's biggest dailies headlined the story on its sports page, "Reign of terror ends."

      Meanwhile the recipient of Knight's most recent temper tantrum is receiving death threats via phone calls and e-mail.

      I was going to write, "It's a mentality I don't understand," but understanding is not the issue. Rather, it's a mentality that infuriates me. It infuriates me because it exonerates the culprit and blames the victim.

      Knight has a violent temper. I remember watching him throw a chair across the basketball court. His violence is well documented. But, because he has been one of the most successful coaches in college basketball, he was held to a different standard of behavior than the majority of us are.

      NORMALLY, I WOULDN'T BE writing about an infamous sports figure. The reason I do so today is because I held onto another front page news story, dated Aug. 27, which detailed the abuse and death of Shelby Duis. One of the underlying messages of this news story is that a list of people knew that the two-year-old was abused by someone with a violent temper, time and time again.

      I think there are connections between Knight and Duis. Both tell us something about violent tempers which were condoned by enough people over long periods of time. In Knight's case, people put up with his temper for nearly 30 years. In Duis' case, she died after being physically abused for months. The violence against Duis was well-documented.

      Last week a 23-month-old boy was hospitalized in critical condition, suffering from shaken baby syndrome. His mother and her boyfriend have been charged in the case. According to newspaper accounts, his father had photographed the toddler's bruises and had been in contact with DHS for at least five months prior to this most recent episode of abuse.