I am an Activist.
I had to go and look up its meaning to see if we matched.
"An activist is a person who campaigns for some kind of social change."
I also checked on what they mean by Social Change.
"Social change refers to any significant alteration over time in behavior patterns and cultural values and norms."
Yep, I am an activist.
Oddly, I would not have used this label for me, but it totally fits.
My campaign, if you will, is for victims of abuse to return to full power...and for the family dynamics to be challenged and questioned if all members don't have equal rights.
The only way we can end these cycles of abuse, is to break the cycle.
To end the patterns of behavior that we were raised in.
To shatter the family's traditions that have served thee abusers.
For, statistic show that 90% of abuse happens with someone we know...and 50% within the family.
We have to look closely at those we call family...and their friends.
We have to scrutinize the rules and traditions of our religions and see how they work remarkably well for abusers and leave victims untreated, unseen and unheard.
My campaign would flip this totally around.
Where the children are seen and heard and empowered...valued, honored and respected.
Doesn't that line seem insane?
Like who wouldn't value, honor and respect a child?
Isn't it incredible that we as a society have overlooked and looked around the lives inside of families. We have neglected and disrespected their privacy. Keeping our eyes away from their 'family' business...and allowing all manner of abuse to be okay as long as it is disguised as 'family'.
This frontier that is closer to you than any other part of your life, is the one place we don't fully explore or challenge. Family is and has always been out of bounds.
It is the one thing we are not allowed to challenge...or stand against.
You are either with us or against us.
We take our cues from the adults in our world; never striking out on our own to investigate the origins of why we do what we do. We wouldn't dare go against the family's legacy of being a family.
To challenge a family is unheard of.
It is to be a non-family family member.
Family is family no matter what.
We don't dis family.
We don't tear a family apart due to some abuse issues.
We rally and stick closer together when abuse walks in.
Even if abuse wears the label father...you don't wreck a family over that.
My campaign is to tear apart families that are not families...
To allow children (adult children) to break free and to end the cycles of abuse on their limb of the family tree.
Abuse will not end unless and until we destroy abusive Families.
Allowing the family to stay labeled as family when abuse is happening is what keeps it going for generation upon generation.
We are smarter than this.
We can no longer turn a blind eye to the statistics and ignore the 90% of where abuse lives.
It lives in families.
In our Aunts and Uncles.
Our grandfathers...and grandmothers.
With their friends.
It is so close; we can't see the forrest for the trees....
Pedophiles are held tight within the family circle.
Supported by those in silence.
And, by those who don't want to let the family die.
Yet, the family is already dead.
It has been replaced by a well run abuse machine.
How can you tell if you are within a family or part of an abusive crime circle?
Are the children seen, heard and respected?
Do they have a voice and a choice?
Are they free to make their own decisions....do they own their bodies?
Or, are they held captive by those who have control over their lives?
Doesn't it seem incredibly insane that these criminal circles of sexual abuse and physical abuse grow their own victims?
And, they call it 'family'.
And, within the circle are those who know; but stay silent.
Silent for the sake of family.
How successful will my campaign be....as I go against family.
(But, I just realized I am an activist for children...the silent many who suffer in the family circle.)
