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Are Among Us  |
We must team up to end
the epidemic of sex abuse
of TheColumnists.com
Child molestations and murders are appalling and unacceptable and yet we are told they are occurring every few minutes in this country. Solving these crimes committed by the perverted and the devilish has become a matter of endless hours of police work transferred onto our TV screens so that we might be informed of the horror. Books on the subject are pouring off the presses of every major publishing company. But still, the monsters seem to have few obstacles in carrying off the dearest and best of our future.
Another child has been found dead in our state. His mutilated eight-year-old body was discovered within blocks of the residential area where he lived. He had made the mistake of walking to the park.
At a crowded school bus stop a man in a truck tried to pull one of the children into his vehicle, and only barely failed.
One of the killer/torturers of a little one was only 12 years old. The defense said he had repressed anger, some kind of a fury that roiled around in his brain in response to the treatment of his parents, whose actions, by the way, didn’t sound unreasonable. Are we supposed to care about that? Can the hidden dungeons of that dark and twisted brain ever be made well enough to live next door to our children?
A young girl was kidnapped from her own bed and carried out the window, (with sleep-over girl friends in the same room) to be raped and killed.
There is no use to list any more of the thousands of cases. We all know about it. If we can read, hear, or see, we know about it. The media has informed us almost on a daily basis what these little ones suffered during their last hours of life.
When these crimes were beginning to explode across the country I quit looking or listening to the stories. What could I do about it? Tears and a sick heart don’t change anything.
My helplessness is the same today, but the absolute flood of child murders has prompted me to take some action, however small…and so, this column, and an idea that could be immensely powerful although it is far from new.
When do we say ENOUGH? That day came when the first one died, didn’t it? I write to share something we CAN do for our kids that WILL help if enough of us carry it through.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) once shared her opinion that it takes a village to bring up a child. I admit to sneering slightly at her idea, thinking it was tinged with a bit of socialism. With the epidemic of child rape and murder I now firmly hope we will use the premise in a modified version. If a whole village literally “watched out” for their children, very few of the sadistic killers would succeed in their madness.
As individuals, we really need to learn how to constantly look around us, and be sensitive to our surroundings. The perpetrators of these crimes are very much in the open as a rule, and don’t seem to be concerned with being caught. Nine times out of 10, they don’t cover license plates or even disguise themselves. In fact, the majority can be described as brazen.
A recent local case involved a busy day at the park and a man trying repeatedly to lure a young boy into his van. Thank God his attempt failed when the boy became suspicious and ran to find the police…whose office was only a matter of yards from where the man was parked! No one saw the chilling tableau being played out within feet of where they sat!
A later search of the van revealed blacked-out back windows and chicken wire stretched across both back doors. He came prepared.
More often than not we don’t pay much attention to what is going on around us. And that’s especially true in crowded places.
One of the TV channels did a documentary several years ago on the subject of children and how difficult or easy it would be to coax them into a waiting car. Again, the setting was in a public park during peak hours of the afternoon.
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way beyond offering kids candy to get in their cars. |
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How many times have you heard a parent say…or, said yourself…”My child would never go with a stranger. They know better. We’ve warned him many times. No. Not even for all the candy in the world.”
Try a puppy. That is what the film people used, a nice man asking a child to come and help him find his lost puppy.
How many little ones went immediately to help find the pup? I believe it was every single one!
They DON’T know better. They have yet to learn the ugly lesson of, “What evil lurks in the hearts of men.” (And women.) We adults DO know, and we are the ones who need to be the eyes for our kids and grandkids.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting we become busybodies, or Peeping Tom’s, but when you are out in public or in your car, remember to watch for our children.
We are all they have and there are beasts living among us.
© 2002 by Audrey Yeager.
The illustrations are from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895
Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA.
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