Another sordid tale.

I have absolutely nothing to say, having done absolutely nothing today so far. Hubby sits at one end of the attic composing and I sit at the other, playing on the computer, wasting precious hours of my life. The plan was to go Christmas shopping this morning, but so far we have not broken out of the inertia that keeps us immobilized in our respective ergonomic chairs. I can�t even bring myself to move over to the other computer (I don�t even have to get out of the chair, except to turn on the powerbar switch) and do some actual work, for which I will be remunerated at some future point. Soon it will be lunchtime and hopefully at that point we will get off our duffs and make the local merchants happy.

I brought up a subject a while back which only two brave souls commented on, the matter of child abuse, sexual and otherwise. I thought this might be a good opportunity to tell you a story, a very true story, for which I will supply links in the event anyone wants to read more about it.

In the small city of which I find myself a part, a man repeatedly raped his daughter starting from when she was just a small child. He also encouraged his sons to rape their sister, standing by and giving them instructions. They were barely pubescent themselves. Before the trial was over, the girl was dead from heat stroke while in hospital being treated for ovarian cancer. Even when she was in hospital and her family came to visit, the father continued to fondle and kiss her inappropriately in front of other visitors and the medical staff. It was these incidences which alerted the staff that there was something strange afoot, and the girl finally told the doctors and nurses on videotape what she had kept hidden for all those years. During all this, the mother never spoke up against her husband, never stood up for her daughter, and continued to act as though this were perfectly normal. She insisted that her husband would never lay a hand on his daughter.

In the end, the judge sentenced the father to 14 years in prison. I wonder if his fellow inmates will let him leave. The brothers were both sentenced, although not as severely since they both testified against their father. They are now married and have families of their own and appear to have gotten over their childhood experience. The daughter, unfortunately, never lived to see justice done. She had a horrible life and died a horrible death. The links are here, here and here.

You see why I was ready to believe the story the girl in my previous entry told. I�m sure there are many people out there who think that she is just trying get attention, but I�m afraid that this kind of abuse is a lot more prevalent than we realize, and for this reason I think it is so important that we teach our boys that women and girls are people deserving of respect and equality, that sex is not a weapon and should never be used as a means of domination, and conversely we should teach our girls that they don�t have to give in to sex unless forced to do so, and that they should view it as an act of violence and report it as such. This whole business makes me very angry and I am hoping that it fuels a bit of ire in the rest of you.

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