Abused as a child? Should you tell?

We can all learn something from Stacy Lannert. She killed her father after he raped her repeatedly from the time she was 8 until she turned 18. She didn’t kill him for that, though. She killed him because he told her that her younger sister would take her place, and indeed was preparing to do follow through. She was unable, for legal reasons I can’t fathom, to raise the issue of abuse in her trial, and since she wasn’t a spouse the legal avenues open to spouses were closed to her. So she spent 18 years in prison before being released by the Governor of Mississippi.
There is some contention about the facts in the case. I heard Stacy and I believe her.
What we can learn is not that it is a good thing to kill someone. Not that. What she is doing is far more heroic in my mind. She is going public with her story with the hope of helping other sexually abused people realize that the shame and guilt they may feel is not their fault. That hiding what happened to them helps no one, and maybe by telling their story they can maybe help someone else or themselves.
So this essay is a way of introducing the idea that “going public” with a story of sexual abuse doesn’t have to be an “Oh woe is me. Oh pity poor me” kind of moment. It may just be the push that someone else needs to get help or to begin to understand that an eight year old child is NEVER responsible for being abused. End of story.
More on this in a future essay.
News Summary:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=7168291&page=4
Image: http://ncmbts.blogspot.com/2010/04/secrecy-law-scandal-john-aster-exposed.html

News from the Earth.

According to the JPL and NASA, the quake in Japan has: moved Japan closer to the US; shortened the day by a microsecond or so and; shifted the axis (1 and others). Don’t worry, though. These minor changes are normal results of major plate shifts. The interesting thing is that a mass as large as Earth can be changed at all by a surface action.
When the Chinese announced the building of the huge dam and lake complex, the Three Gorges Dam, calculations showed that this mass of water would change the rotation time, the shape and the axis of the Earth. They built it and it did those things. With no noticeable effect on anything except the 1.8 million people they moved and a reduction in flooding. This complex generates a huge number of megawatts of electric power. The trade off is seen as a good thing for China. Now they can have more people.
Reforestation is moving forward in many places in the world even as deforestation continues to increase.
Fresh water supplies continue to be stressed as more and more people are born and more live longer. The population increases continue to stress the Earthly infrastructure. So what? So nothing, that’s what. I just think it is amazing that human activity can measurably change the face of the Earth. Oh, and new data indicates more melting of the ice sheets and glaciers. This should be good, no? More fresh water? Wrong. That fresh water goes into the oceans and just causes a slight rise in sea level.
All in all we are seeing a positive feedback mechanism at work. Some things, like quakes and tsunamis are independent of human activity while others are a direct or indirect result of our activities. Whatever you think about the political stances you have to be glad that you won’t live to see the next 100 years. Hold on tight folks, there is a bad moon rising. Read the lyrics to Fogerty’s song and see if you don’t get a little chill.

Lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/creedence+clearwater+revival/bad+moon+rising_20034328.html
1. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Japan-Earthquake-Shifts-Earth-s-Axis-Shortens-Days-189265.shtml
Image: http://www.notkeren.com/writing/2009/07/bad-moon-rising/

Shame on the World

Genocide in Rwanda. The world watched as a million were butchered. Genocide in Bosnia. The world stood by while tens of thousands were butchered. Genocide in Kenya. The world stood by while thousands were butchered. Genocide in Sudan. The world stood by while thousands were butchered. Genocide in Germany. The world stood by while millions were butchered.
After all that, and more, you would think we would get the lead out of our collective asses and stop it from happening again. This time Libya. An oppressed people finally aroused by freedom seekers in neighboring countries take to the streets and begin a resistance that turned into a rebellion and then into a civil war. We watched as Gadhafi reeled back, then struck back with airpower, artillery and mercenaries. And we watched while he butchered his own people. The freedom seeking people have begged for help from the free world. Anything. And we stand by and watch.
The UN commissioned a report on alleged human rights abuses. Report due in June. Big f-ing deal. June. A no fly zone in Iraq worked without a preliminary softening up. The jets just flew over and sent a missile into anything that “lit up” with radar. The world could do the same here. In Bosnia the UN targeted tanks and artillery. Then the baddies negotiated.
In Libya we watch. The free world is full of gutless bastards. Us (spell that US) included.
Image: www.patriotactionnetwork.com