So You Know...

Statistically, children are not safe in this country. 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys in America will be either raped or molested by an adult by their 18th birthday. I know of at least eight women who this has happened to as children, by everything from step fathers to brothers to teachers. In comparison, I have only known one person who has had cancer. That’s kind of a scary statistic. Currently in the media, there are more than a half dozen stories relating to child rapes, abductions and murders. Elizabeth Smart is testifying against her offender. Elizabeth Olten was killed in Missouri. Somer Thompson was recently abducted and found dead in Florida. Sandra Cantuu was kidnapped and murdered earlier this year in California. Jaycee Dugard was abucted at age 11 and held in captivity as an adult man’s sex slave until this year. An arrest was finally made in Jennifer Schuett’s case. She was abducted and raped at 8, surviving her throat being slit. Haleigh Cummings is still missing in Florida. Dakota Hughes, 11, was murdered in Oklahoma. At one point last year, I could recall something like seven news stories of little girls and boys being abducted, raped and found dead in a six month time span. Victims who survive a child sex offender, even if it is someone they know or trust, face a lifetime of emotional problems.

Do a Google News search on “child molester” and you’ll see the problem. They’re coaches, firefighters, dads, uncles, brothers, sometimes women — and they’re everywhere. 300,000 computers have been found trading child pornography in the U.S. The biggest perpetrator was a soccer dad who was active in the community and well respected — and drugging, raping and videotaping his daughter and her friends at night while his wife slept upstairs. There are 400,000 registered sex offenders in this country, a very large majority guilty of child offenses. More than 150 registered sex offenders lived in a few mile radius of Somer Thompson’s home in Florida. A half dozen live in walking distance from the school near my house — several are less than three blocks away. I live near some of the most prestigious stores in the city. This is supposed to be a relatively safe area.

In 2007, I met Erin Runnion of The Joyful Child organization as I held a charity auction of my wardrobe to benefit her work. Erin’s daughter Samantha was five years old and playing in her front yard, with a relative in ear shot, when a child sex offender abducted her. She was found raped and murdered a few days later. DNA from her tears were found on the door of his car. I will never forget how it felt to be in that room at Joyful Child for as long as I live. There was something in Erin’s eyes I pray I never see again. I’m an aunt to eight kids under the age of 12. Every year that they get older, I think “thank God, they are still safe.” I could not imagine if one of them went missing, like 8 year old Jessica Lumsford who was kidnapped from her home, raped for three days by an adult man, then told to get inside of two garbage bags because she’d be taken home, only to be buried alive instead. I can’t imagine how scared she must have been. Based on the statistics, this could happen to any child at anytime, anywhere.

It took two years and massive effort to pass the Protect Our Children Act, which gives money to law enforcement to do something about the 300,000 people viewing child pornography. In comparison, parents fought harder and gave more money to prevent gays from marrying. If we heard about these things happening to children in another country, we would say that country is unsafe and barbaric. I know its hard for people to care about all the problems that go on in society and I know that it’s very hard to know how to create the power to change it. But this can’t possibly be okay in our country any longer. Mommy bloggers have such a powerful influence and platform — if not to fight, then to help raise awareness for parents. Technology has incredible potential to find missing kids — had the right technology been in place many say Samantha Runnion would have been found in a matter of hours. Instead, she was found dead.

Whether or not you have kids, we should all care about stopping this problem. Spread the word.

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