Oprah - very moving show about stopping sexual violence against children

"We are going to move heaven and earth to stop a sickness, a darkness, that I believe is the definition of evil, that has been going on for far too long. The children of this nation, the USA, are being stolen, raped, tortured, and killed, by sexual predators, who are walking right into your homes. How many times does it have to happen? How many children have to be sacrificed? ...How long until we rise up and take to the streets and say, enough - enough - ENOUGH!?"

On now.

Oprah started the show by saying she's "had enough".

As you may be aware, Oprah was the victim of several sexual crimes as a child and adolescent, including being impregnanted through rape at age 14.

this is a very important issue to me, too

I jsut wish I had TV.

You can watch her very moving and kick-ass intro on the site.

A new thought!

This past Sunday there were 70 anti-abortion/pro-life protesters strung along a highway here in my small town as part of some national 'chain of life' demonstration event.

When are all the Christians going to take to the streets and protest that millions of women and children are abused, raped, and murdered every year in this country? When are violent people - violent men usually - going to be held accountable?

This has spurred Oprah on. She has had enough. When will the pro-lifers decide to defend the rights of the BORN? I'm waiting... Millions of women and children are waiting.

that says abortion has caused both child and spousal abuse to rise. And, that the longer abortion is legal, the more abuse there is. (I'm not agreeing with them, I'm just reporting). They assume that if abortion is stopped, abuse will drop.

It does no good to point out to them (believe me, I've tried) that the reason for the statistics on abuse going up at the same time abortion was made legal and continuing to rise is because
a) many states did not have any real child abuse legislation until the late 60s and early 70s - and even when they passed it, how well was it enforced?

b) it's not that many years ago laws were passed that required doctors and teachers (among others) to report abuse and

c) it's really only recently that police and courts have been forced to take spousal abuse seriously (and still, not every jurisdiction does).

usually because she's "lonely"..

Mothers need to be educated as well as the children, so they can spot these people before they harm kids.

Who are eager for positive attention and "father figures" for their children.

relationships, and predators know just what to say and do ..to worm their way into the "playhouse"..:puke:

i could and WOULD murder someone if i caught them molesting a child. and i mean ANY CHILD! thats how strongly i feel about this issue

They are "told on" after they have moved on to the next victim..That's why it's hard to convict them.. Children are starting to get more respect in courtrooms, but in past times, it was difficult to get children to testify and stand up under the cross examination, and the benefit of the doubt was given to the abuser..

Most of the time it was long after the guy had moved out, so Mom would just "want it over", and often charges were not even pressed..

It's very similar to the church pedophilia thing.. These guys are mobile, and they take many victims.. they rarely kill or maim their victims, and can have hundreds of children in their wake.

They are successful at it because they don;t get "caught".. and if they happen to be the family breadwinner, guess who gets believed most of the time... not the kid.

And people in the victim's lives blame them ...

I've said it for many years, starting when I had children.

It's not just what they might have done to that child. My child, your child, any child.

It's the long line of children standing behind that child that suffered the same thing.

It's the long line of children standing ahead of that child that will too.

Has to stop. I feel the same way Oprah does. I've always felt, perhaps wrongly, that it would be worth the rest of my life in jail if I stopped just one of them. I always wondered why enough women didn't feel the sam way enough to make it stop. In the end, all I know is, it's our problem, and our problem alone, because while it is not perceived by men AS being their responsibility to stop it, it WILL not stop.

The problem is not being correctly identified.

It's a cycle of abuse. Victims don't usually get the help that they need (and almost never get justice from the legal system), while predators look for women who are abused... so eager and interested in being helpful.

I don't mean to say that all nonoffending parents are saints (In court, I've heard one mother say after reading MEDICAL REPORTS and seeing PICTURES that she still didn't believe her daughter. :grr:), but there is such a failure in the system to catch predators and to assist victims to break the cycle of abuse.

She's talking about 'rising up in the streets' again.

I wish she would have a similar 'Aha Moment' (tm) about the war in Iraq.

"We need to take to the streets because this is our country and we are supposed to make the laws, and we need to make it so that the FIRST TIME one of these people harm a child, they are put into prison and NEVER. LET. OUT. (applause) I am sick of it, I am so sick of it, I am sick of it, sick of it! ... do you really care? Or do you only really care about yourself?"

:wow:

All of it relates to the same issues we talk about everyday.

I love Oprah. I love her philanthropy. I love that she takes care of her health. She is a personal role model for me.

can willfully ignore the fact of the RCC sex scandal, anything can and will happen. Are there other religions that have a similar negative track record? Maybe, maybe not. Either way its a fact that the RCC hierarchy have not experienced one single criminal indictment.

Not one RCC Bishop who has been shown to have aided and abetted the sexual torture and abuse of children has been charged.

We have a problem in this country but it is not restricted to perpetrators. We are the problem. Even animals know how and when to protect their own.

you know the system is fucked up.

Sick.

It is easy to prevent the repetition. Neuter the male. Plain and simple and cheap. We need to get over the fear of hurting a poor, misunderstood child molester. All of them will tell you "I will do it again". Just have it as a punishment and get it over with.

I think they should put - PERMANENTLY - in dedicated institutions where they can garden and paint and read books, with a bunch of other abusers and NEVER be in society ever again. These people are mentally ill. But that is no reason for them to inflict this lifelong pain on innocent women and children.

On a related note, I think (and have always thought) that rapists should get life with no option of parole. Only in a system run by rich old white dudes could rapists consistently get out of jail in 3-5 years. Rape is almost like murder in my book and should be treated accordingly (nevermind that murderers should never be let out).

grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

YAY Oprah! She just said 'There is no rehabilitation'.

Needs to be said, IMHO. Anyone who has ever known one of these men knows this.

..Every place where children are known to congregate could have a small device that would seek the frequencies of the predator bracelet, and set them off.. It would make the predators wary of hanging out places where children are.. It would be a mite embarrassing, if a car alarm sound went off every time you entered a place..

. . . about all of the missing children from Katrina. I just did a google search and found quite a bit on the subject. Here's an interesting post at Portland Indymedia:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/325349.shtml

TYY:grr:

To anyone who gives a tip that leads to the arrest of one of the men on the FBI's Most Wanted Sexual Predators list - see website referenced above.

TYY:cry::kick:

:kick

If I had known how explosive her show was going to be, I would've given this thread a better subject line.

:kick: