February 5th, 2009 by Michael Sharp

I had an interesting day today. I spent three hours of my afternoon in a Little Warriors workshop dealing with child sexual abuse. To be honest, I didn’t really learn many new things. As a sociologist, I am fully aware of the horrific level of child sexual abuse that occurs on this planet. It’s stunning. Sit down in a room of ten women, and odds are high that at least five of them have been sexually abused. Odds are good that every one of them will have a story. Statistics show 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men experience abuse before they become adults, some repeatedly (and usually by members of their family, or close family friends!?).

And if you can believe it, that’s not even the worst part!

The worst part is that society turns a blind eye to the problem.

Despite the fact that children are being molested and raped on a daily basis, people pretend it doesn’t exist. Listen to the stories of survivors and you’ll see. Their parents did nothing, their sports group did nothing, the boyscout leaders did nothing, the schools did nothing, nothing! Despite the fact that it is happening all around us, we  pretend it doesn’t exist and in that pretension we let it happen again, and again, and again.

We have a systematic, organized, and deliberate blindness to the problem. Read the rest of this entry »

Sexual Abuse