Betsy Salkind was PROTECT's woman in Sacramento for Senate Bill 33. Salkind worked the halls of the legislature, lobbying, charming, bullying and organizing throughout the winter, spring and summer of 2005. She also played a crucial role by painstakingly working to recruit a diverse, winning coalition of over 40 organizations for the Circle of Trust campaign. In this essay, Salkind focuses on the emerging movement of child abuse survivors sparked by this campaign, their anger and their determination to win again.

[From www.Protect.org. See their site for more commentaries on this law.]

The Righteous Battle is On: An Organizer's View
Betsy Salkind

When I got over the shock of finding out that child molesters who grew their own victims were getting lighter sentences, I then faced the shock that there were legislators who wanted to keep it that way.

Under a policy of "family reunification," these children were forced to have contact with their perpetrators, as no other crime victims are, "for their own good." But when you sexually abuse your child, you are not a father (except in the Catholic Church kind of way), you are a perpetrator.

If that is what we mean by family, then we've got a domestic revolution that needs to happen.

The Catholic Priest scandal has taught us that those in authority, those who are trusted and sometimes beloved, often abuse that authority and that children are devastated by this. They are then devastated by a society that tells them that they made it up, that their mother made it up, that they mustn't talk about it, that it says bad things about them, that it is shameful, that it is icky and impolite to mention, that they have false memories, that they are starting a witchhunt, that it really wasn't that bad, that it's far worse to have been accused of such a crime, that their reports will ruin lives, that they'll feel guilty sending daddy to jail, that being raped by daddy is only what they wish would happen (that would be Freud saying that one).

In those rare cases when there is a massive amount of evidence, a prosecution is actually pursued and a conviction somehow achieved, often the child is then betrayed by the State—their guardian of last resort. In California, these molesters were given probation and allowed continued access to more victims. The vitriol and sometimes vigilantism aimed at molesters who get out of prison and end up in people's neighborhood is in part the accumulated rage of too many survivors whose molesters escaped justice entirely, often just because they were related.

Our society acts like the real danger to children is the creepy loner who lurks in the park, but the truth is the danger is in our homes, in our families. This is not new. What is new is that victims now grown are no longer accepting the shame and enforced silence of the crimes committed against them, and are determined to spare other children their own pain.

For years I worked to "heal" the damage of my own abuse. But when I found out several years ago that my father had also molested other children, outside of the family, I realized that my own experience was not personal, and treating it as such was not an option. Just because I was an adult and no longer in danger did not absolve me of responsibility for those still vulnerable. He may have gotten away in my case due to statutes of limitation, but others could still be caught.

This campaign has taught me that there are a whole lot of us who are finished with the perp version of our experience and are determined to ruin a perps day. Every day.

As I worked to build this coalition, nearly everyone I spoke with, and I spoke with a lot of people, had been or knew someone who had been abused by a family member. Their eyes lit up when they learned of PROTECT's unapologetic approach to protecting children. Nothing cures the depression and isolation of this terrible experience like a righteous battle, and this one is on.

Just as the nearly one million members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have joined together to protect animals from the cruelty of other humans, a growing number of child sexual abuse survivors are not willing to consign the next generation to what has been called "just the way it is." If I may paraphrase PETA, children are no longer ours to eat, wear or experiment on.

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