to remind me that I'm NOT back at work.
For decades, I was a child abuse social worker in a pediatric hospital in an urban ER.
I was the person to whom many children first disclosed sexual abuse.
I have heard literally thousands of descriptions about what can be done to children
to gratify adults distorted sexual perversions.
The majority of people in the US have NO idea what sick people are capable of doing
and how inconsequential the realities of 'consent' or 'age appropriateness' is for them.
It isn't about SEX, per se.
It's about CONTROL.
Its about FEAR.
As more and more of the Epstein files get released, it's like being back in the ER,
and the pain these children felt is very palpable and real to me.
The lies, the denials and the minimization by the accused or implicated is also very real;
it's straight out of the abusers handbook.
The reality that most of the abusers will never face justice or be held to account is also familiar;
disturbing and unjust, but familiar.
People do NOT want to believe the evil that lives in our midst.
We want to believe that we could pick out the sadistic perpetrators;
that 'they' somehow look different than "us".
Here's the truth -
they don't.
They are teachers, politicians, doctors, fiances, salesmen, bankers and neighbors.
The majority of them have penises,
although females enamored by and controlled by these men
are as capable of sexual atrocities as the men themselves.
It was my job to bear witness to all of that for decades;
but there are times now when I need to turn it off
and play while some of the country tries to catch up on the learning curve.
Luckily, the winter has Valentines Day in it,
there were left over skeletons from the Halloween wreaths I made -
and I let imagination take the lead.
What follows is the result.
Take care of yourself,
know when you need to step away
and try to do it without guilt.
You can jump back in when you're ready -
god knows this pathology isn't going anywhere.
