Edmund Burke, an Irish Statesman and Member of Parliament said “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to be silent”. The philosophical founder of modern conservatism, Mr. Burke’s words have been stated in different ways by many famous people including Thomas Jefferson. History has proven this statement to be both accurate and prophetic. We hear philosophical statements like this and “history is bound to repeat itself” with much nodding of heads in agreement.
Don’t you think it’s time we put our money where our mouth is? Did anyone not experience horror when we first found out what Hitler had done to more than 6 million Jews? When I was a child growing up enmeshed in Catholicism we were never told about the Inquisition. No one explained the dark side to the Crusades. You didn’t question anything that brought doubt into your mind; you just believed as you were told. Why then does secrecy still surround child sexual abuse? Why do so many want to change the subject or just pretend we didn’t hear what we heard. Your child comes to you and tells you what is happening in the dark of night in her lower bunk bed. You stare at them for a moment and then ridicule them for having such a big imagination. But inside we are troubled. Something is not right. Let’s just shove that “something” into a room in our mind, lock the door and throw away the key.
Silence is still the single biggest reason why child sexual abuse is epidemic. Why are we so afraid to face something this foul, this offensive? I recently watched a video on what an abortion doctor does in the second trimester of a pregnancy. I didn’t know. I felt such revulsion that I had to force myself to finish watching it as my stomach heaved in protest. Then I wished I hadn’t seen it. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that this happens to hundreds of thousands of babies in the womb every year. This is America where our Bill of Rights protects us, but obviously not a child in the womb.
People all over the world experience this when they are faced with a reality so loathsome that they cannot believe it. It’s as if a little voice in their mind is saying, this isn’t real, this doesn’t happen, someone is making this up, I don’t want to know anymore. Many of my family members have chastised me for not letting go of what happened to me and millions of others. Move on, they say. You can’t do anything about it now anyway. Stop talking about it. Of course they don’t want to know. I wish I didn’t know. I wish my father had never raped me when I was a young teenager. I wish my three daughters had not been sexually abused.
Stark reality is offensive to most people. He died? I don’t want to know the details. It’s enough that he died. Did any of us enjoy watching the people in the Twin Towers who threw themselves out the window rather than being burned to death? The evil in the minds of the men behind this is almost unbelievable. Could this really have happened in our country? And yet it did.
When I think about what happens behind the scenes at the annual Super Bowl I am angry. I’m tickled that so many people have a joyful day of sports. But I hate that it is the biggest sex trafficking day there is. People come from all over the world for that event, not the Super Bowl, but the sex trafficking. They have taken a national pastime beloved by millions and sullied it with their evil.
When I was growing up I never heard the word pregnancy; but I did hear the initials PG. I never heard my parents use foul language but my dad referred to Roosevelt as that SOB. I used to think that when I grew up I would find the dictionary of initials so I could find out what all of these meant. We were smothered with continuous admonishments regarding using any words that were not clean or good. I got my mouth washed out with soap a lot for saying the word, “no”. Is it any wonder that I was a good target for incest? Perpetrators head for the most obedient child in the schoolyard.
Being obedient is not always good. Questioning or saying no is not always bad. We live in a world where since the beginning of time there was evil, starting with Cain if you believe the Old Testament. But today we are enlightened. Today we know so clearly what is wrong and what is right so why are we still silent about child sexual abuse? If you know why please educate me or do I have to wait until I see a video on that as well?
As long as we are silent we will never get a handle on the number of people who suffer from this. If you are a victim there is no shame in speaking out about what happened to you. The shame is on the perpetrator. It takes courage but the world can change with everyone taking baby steps, then giant steps in speaking out. Stay silent no more!
