| by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. In 1978 a stunning young girl, just 12 years old, astonished the world by her beauty, talent... and most of all her deep understanding of one of the few things we humans do which is still regarded as heinous, a sin, abhorrent, disgusting, loathsome, reprehensible, incomprehensible. The girl was Brooke Shields. The film was a 1978 historical fiction drama by Louis Malle. The subject was the story of how a bordello madame in 1917 New Orleans auctioned off the virginity of her own daughter, played by Shields, who outraged many with her provocative pre-teen nude photos. The film was nominated for an Academy Award. And its score? Music by Tony Jackson, who probably wrote it about 1912, although it was not published until 1916. Al Jolson made it unforgettable in his 1930 version. You know it as "Pretty Baby". Go now to any search engine and find it... "Your mother said you were the cutest kid/No wonder, Dearie, that I'm wild about you." Cute kids to be wild about. That was Professor Grant, a man with a dark secret and a computer he carried everywhere, a computer that was soon to destroy his comfortable world of respect, admiration, and deference. Picture the scene. When Grant Smith woke up on Saturday, November 26, 2011, in Cottonwood Heights, Utah he was a respected member of the Academy, a professor of materials science and engineering; also adjunct professor of chemical engineering at the University of Utah. A 14 year employee, he holds a doctorate and two master's degrees. When he went to bed that evening, in Boston, Massachusetts, a city he often visited on business, he was being held in jail bail set at $15,000 cash. What had happened that turned this November day from the same o' same o', into quite possibly the most important day of his distinguished life? We business people know the drill for catching early morning flights at day break. We wake up in the middle of the night, groggy, unwilling to leave our comfortable beds and comfortable lives. But we take a shower (with the coldest water we can bear)... and get prepared for the long, often boring, dull but utterly important day ahead. We are in business... and this is what we do; always with our trusty computer, simultaneously the bane and chief support of our lives; yes, the bane of our existence and our most important tool. It was the same for Dr. Smith. A man and his computer yoked, one of the most characteristic and defining images of our wired age. Thus, no one thought anything out of the ordinary, when this good-looking father of two, aged 8 and 10, conservatively dressed in a dark-gray blazer over a black polo shirt, opened his computer... it would have been rather odd if he hadn't. We wonder what's on their computers. Perhaps because I am a commentator, commenting on all aspects of the nation and indeed the world, I am an inveterate watcher, gawker, eves dropper. I like to know what's going on in other lives... and thus I always take a peek at what my fellow airplane prisoners are doing on their computers; the device that keeps them hooked to their lives and offices whilst 30,000 feet over Miami. Their screen is there, quite visible and clear, always tempting to peruse. And so I do... And others, too. Which is how his tale, both shocking and tragic, became known. The passenger behind. As all seasoned air travelers know, to a great extent the comfort and serenity of their day flying depends on the passenger directly in front of and the passenger directly behind you. What angle they want on their seats, for instance, can wreck a perfectly wonderful day, whilst if they are burping a baby over their shoulder can prove catastrophic for your new suit. This day the passenger seated directly behind Smith was not only curious about what the good doctor was doing... but he was lynx-eyed... He saw Smith open his lap top... then open to some pictures of a young girl. No doubt his daughter... But as Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said, "These weren't photos of a child in the bath that a parent might keep". No indeed. The photos the passenger saw were "explicitly sexual and extremely disturbing." What would you do? All of us at some time or another will witness an event at once disturbing, distressing, dishonest, disagreeable. It is inevitable, a certain cost of living the way we do. So, the question becomes, what do we do when such distressing intelligence comes our way and we cannot pretend that we just don't see. That's what the unidentified passenger behind had to decide... and he decided on action, prompt, immediate, thorough. First, he took a picture of Smith and some of his unsettling images. He emailed these to a relative in Arizona with instructions to contact Boston authorities. Then he advised the flight attendant who advised Smith to shut off his computer altogether. At that moment, like a drowning man, I can imagine that Smith's life flashed in front of him. We can imagine, flight ensnared as he was, that he, a man respected, a man of place and position, felt trapped, without options except immediate compliance. And so he went from anxiety... to fear... to panic... to despondency... the memories crowding fast... ... of being that so bright high school student, voted "most likely"; of college where professors who mentored told him he would go far, helping many; of the day when he got his Ph.D., the day he got his plum university position... and even the day he married the now divorced wife he had once loved to distraction. Now, far above his nation, he despaired, as well he might, for his nightmare had hardly begun. Computer seized, images disclosed, opprobrium, disgrace. Boston authorities, including State Police troopers who met his flight, searched his laptop, and found the "disturbing" images they had been advised to expect. They arrested Smith and Monday, November 28, he was arraigned... whilst his life, with its carefully constructed contours, so cherished now that it was not only threatened but destroyed unravelled. How would he respond to the inevitable wise cracks, taunts, and ribaldry.... how to the moral outrage of friends and neighbors... how to his students and colleagues? And how, most tragically, to his children now baffled and hurt? And now the big question, why had he done it? There are only two explanations... hubris and/ or stupidity, two sides of the same coin. Was Smith so far gone in arrogance that, like so many other clueless members of the Academy, many tenured, acting like the gods they believe they are; far above the petty concerns of mere mortals like you and me. With these academicians, this is always possible, even likely. Or was it simply that Professor Grant D. Smith was stupid, rash -- a man needing the fix that was there in his computer at his fingertips; so focused on his need and obsession that he dismissed the risk? This could also be true; when mixed with hubris and disdain creating the fatal cocktail which he now must drink to the dregs, with irremediable consequences, trumping all his merits and achievements, no matter how helpful to how many. Such is the punishment a society levies on an matter still regarded, and rightly so, as immoral. Thus, Al Jolson's song becomes Grant Smith's swan song, "Your cunning little dimples, and your baby stare, Your baby talk, and baby walk and curly hair, Your baby smile Makes life worthwhile. You're just as sweet as you can be." And we mean to keep it that way. ### What do you think? Let us know by posting your comments below. |
