A Revisit On a Recent Painful Post
With the recent Harvey Weinstein coverage, the Bill Cosby revelations, Roman Polanski, the fact that Donald Trump is in office and knowing what he has done to women in the past and is about to do again on a national level (keep in mind he walked into a room full of naked minors changing during a beauty pageant, and bragged about it, as well as being charged with the rape of a 13 year old girl which was later dropped because when she revealed this as an adult, she received death threats), along with the ever rampant sexism and exploitation of men, women, and children in our society. I want to elaborate on a few more things. It would mean a lot to me if you would read it:
Firstly, let me share something with you. The three people who read my blog know this, and maybe, *maybe* a handful of others whom I consider dear friends.
When I was a child, I was molested. I have few memories before the age of 7 years, but that is not only one of them, but it is the most vivid of all. I remember every single detail about it, right down to the words exchanged. It was a relative, a fairly close one (though not my immediate family). He threatened to kill me, to kill my parents, if I ever said a word. What happened afterward is burned into my memory forever.
Eventually, it was found out, and while my mother fought to have something done about it, the mother of that family member simply said “boys will be boys.” Keep in mind that I was 5, and he was about to be a legal adult. Things being what they were back in the 1980s, and where we lived, what little money we had, there were few options, and so it became yet one more family secret.
Some time later, I found out another family member had sexually abused a dear cousin of mine, but it didn’t stop there. My mother told me (and I have her permission to post this), that when she was a child (back in the 1950s and 1960s), she and her sisters would have to sleep in the same room as male boarders. That is, her mother would rent out rooms to men needing a place to sleep for the night. Apparently, this was common in the country? It was never women, only men who were allowed to stay the night.
These men would flirt with my mom and her sisters, who ranged from 8 to 13 at the time. Some of them would sleep in the same beds as these men, not of their own choice, but because they were told to do so. My mother, and her sisters, would be fondled by her mother’s “friends,” and total strangers just staying the night. It went well beyond that, but I will not go into detail here because I don’t have the heart to discuss it to that degree.
Once I learned these things, it brought back the memories of what happened to me as a child, and as someone who loves kids, who protects them, nurtures them, seeks to make the playing field balanced so they can grow safe and secure without need of worry or fear, I knew I couldn’t just ignore what was still happening around me.
I only had a few tools that I could use proficiently: the computer, and the internet.
So, for many years, I have been on my own mission to track down those who exploit men, and women, but especially children. Their sites, their servers, where they try to hide between the cracks of the internet. I didn’t seek them out directly, but when I happened across their handiwork, which is getting all too common in this day and age where they have managed to put themselves everywhere, I took to reporting it to every major agency I could think of at the time (that list of agencies has grown over the years). I saw something either on the internet, or in every day life, that indicated someone was being exploited, and abused, and I did my damnedest to squash it.
This year has been especially trying, and I am finding that despite all of my efforts to not turn a blind eye, nor a deaf ear to the cries of innocent people, my effort has not been enough, and to be honest, my heart and mind simply cannot handle what I’ve dealt with anymore. It’s starting to break my mind into pieces. I weep every day, I can’t sleep at night. I have seen too much to ever forget the evil that men and women have done to one another, what they’ve done to children, and to the least of these, and for what reason? I don’t know. Power? Lust? Just the idea of harming an innocent satisfies them in some way? Men, women, children, exploited, abused, and put on display. I don’t even want to know if there’s money involved, I just want it all destroyed. I want it obliterated from the internet, from the dark web, from dark rooms, and warehouses where they hide these awful materials to be distributed to others who want to make it, sell it, or share it with other like minded people who take pleasure in the exploitation of others.
So, that being said, even though I have had some successes in stopping the proliferation of those materials which use that exploitation (dozens of websites shut down! YES! Web indexes which lead to awful dark web sites, closed down! YES!), I am only one person, and lack the resources to effectively stop these abuses, especially as I realized recently that their reach goes beyond the dark web, and can be found in places everyone has visited, but no one suspected as a breeding ground. I even learned that such garbage can be found on places like Twitter, Instagram, and even Facebook. That means we are ALL at risk of being witnesses to this exploitation.
I am now deferring to more capable authorities who can do far more than I can, some of whom I only recently discovered actually deal exclusively in such things, and do exceptionally well in their jobs.
Let us save lives, let us rescue the innocent, let us not turn blind eyes and deaf ears to those who need our help, those who experience abuse and exploitation at the hands of family, of strangers, of those who seek to capitalize on misery. Please consider donating to the following organizations:
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children
https://secure.missingkids.org/Donate
RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network)
https://donate.rainn.org/
Internet Watch Foundation – (These people are amazing!)
https://www.iwf.org.uk/fundraising
Just Detention International (Works to prevent sexual abuse against prisoners)
https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/JustDetentionInternational
Planned Parenthood (This organizations helps with all of the major reproductive needs of women)
https://secure.ppaction.org/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app20110a?df_id=24219&24219.donation=form1&s_src=Evergreen_c3_PPNonDirected_HeaderNav&NONCE_TOKEN=0CC4364B46D1552ADCB4595491A6BCAE
——
I realize there are so many more, so please, if you know of one I missed, post it in the comments below. I have already begun donating, but I have little money, so I will be donating in rotation. I am trying for at least two of these organizations a month. I believe the minimum is $10, and yes, every penny counts towards the liberation of another man, woman, and child from these chains.
So if you can, donate. If you cannot, then please spread the word.