Senator Brownsberger:
I want to thank you and Representative Lawn for trying to move the SOL bills out of the Judiciary Committee, and getting your fellow Senators and Representatives to sign the petition that was sent to the Legislatures Leadership. However, getting it out of the Judiciary committee to the floor, is the problem. We know there are enough votes to pass H1455 or S633. If you remember my CBS News Sex Abuse Story, I’m the EX-Green Beret that has posted several times in the past and one thing I do know as a former Special Forces Operator, is you have to be relentless, keep the pressure on your enemy. You have what we call the ” momentum “. If you do that, Flaherty will get off his ASS and move this Bill out of committee. The Boston Globe has written several articles of his close ties with the Catholic Church. In fact last year he stepped down from the committee after one of the Globes article. I can’t get into methods and operational techniques I learned in SF, because I signed a document with the National Security Agency prohibiting disclosure of classified material,but I can tell you this. If I was in your shoes, I would contact any assets that you or a fellow colleague probably has in the media, and keep your selector switch on full automatic. Once one media outlet prints or airs a story, another one will follow as the media watches each other. That way we can fight fire with fire, keep SOL reform in the publics eye and the out come will be an unconditional surrender for SOL reform. We, the sex abused victims, can only point the flag in the direction we want you to go. But you, our elected politicians, have to go forward and fight the battle. That is what leadership is all about. If you would like some help, I would suggest you talk to my lawyer Mitch Garabedian, and get him to allow me to talk with the local media. I will use my media assets in the way that will at the very least, get the local CBS news affiliate to start the convoy rolling.
Sincerely,
John Sweeney
Raped 1969
Thanks, John.
I’m trying to approach this in a way that leads to action and I’m trying to be respectful.
We’ll stay on it!
/w.
To John Sweeney and other survivors of childhood sexual abuse,
I want to share a poem with you by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Her poem, “Justice Denied in Massachusetts” was relevant back in the late 1920’s as it is today:
Let us abandon then our gardens and go home
And sit in the sitting-room
Shall the larkspur blossom or the corn grow under this cloud?
Sour to the fruitful seed
Is the cold earth under this cloud,
Fostering quack and weed, we have marched upon but cannot
conquer;
We have bent the blades of our hoes against the stalks of them.
Let us go home, and sit in the sitting room.
Not in our day
Shall the cloud go over and the sun rise as before,
Beneficent upon us
Out of the glittering bay,
And the warm winds be blown inward from the sea
Moving the blades of corn
With a peaceful sound.
Forlorn, forlorn,
Stands the blue hay-rack by the empty mow.
And the petals drop to the ground,
Leaving the tree unfruited.
The sun that warmed our stooping backs and withered the weed
uprooted—
We shall not feel it again.
We shall die in darkness, and be buried in the rain.
What from the splendid dead
We have inherited —
Furrows sweet to the grain, and the weed subdued —
See now the slug and the mildew plunder.
Evil does overwhelm
The larkspur and the corn;
We have seen them go under.
Let us sit here, sit still,
Here in the sitting-room until we die;
At the step of Death on the walk, rise and go;
Leaving to our children’s children the beautiful doorway,
And this elm,
And a blighted earth to till
With a broken hoe.
I especially like the stanza “Leaving to our children’s children the beautiful doorway”…what I believe she refers to metaphorically as the “beautiful doorway” is “justice”. And as she says, “Leaving to our children’s children…” I suppose that would be our generation she was speaking of.
So, will her words come true for our generation? I spoke with a fellow survivor recently who thinks that we will not see this justice happen in our lifetime. I cried after we spoke. I cry a lot as I have lost everything to the monster who raped me (and others involved). I pray every day that there will be even a bit of justice garnered from all of our efforts to stop pedophiles and get laws changed. I try to never give up hope that there will be those in power that understand the pain we have all been through and are still going through in our souls.
Sincerely,
Madeline Comeau K
Madeline, thank you for sharing this.
May we not disappoint you!
Madeline,
I want to thank you for that poem. The hardest part for all of us who have been sexually abused, is the fact that we can’t wrap our hands around why our politicians can’t pull the trigger on doing the right thing. The Politicians know from expert testimony why we buried the shame inside our souls for so many years. They know that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys have been molested by the age of 17. They know that pedophiles are all around us from the continued high profile cases that we see on the nightly news. They even know that the institutions, be it schools or religious, covered up these crimes. What they don’t understand is what it is like to have been abused by one of these bastards, because if they did, this law would have been changed in the 1920’s. To the abused children, it seems like the politicians are saying, that’s part of life. We continue to here from the opposition, who are shaking in their boots that this bill will eventually pass, that memories fade, that it’s not right to hold people accountable after they have tortured us etc. Unfortunately, they have money and that means power. They have professional lobbyists that know how to work the system, and the system is what is failing us.
I hope and pray that the system will work for us in the future, because it has never worked for the generations of abused children, who buried our shame through silence in the past. We didn’t even know what PTSD and the other related mental health issues that we all cope with the rest of our lives was, until we had our illnesses diagnosed. We all will require some level of therapy throughout the rest of our lives. This is a fact not fiction. And until an influential politician has either a daughter, son, granddaughter or grandson, sexually molested by one or these beast, I fear that we will take this burden that society has placed on us, to our graves.
John Sweeney
Ex Green Beret
Raped 1969
I have no hope that this will ever happen, The only legislation that moves fast on beacon hill is increasing spending or tax increases.
Senator Brownsberger
Has there been any further discussion on SOL reform?
John Sweeney
Raped 1969
John, nothing new to report — still trying to get consensus for action. But, still very much on my radar screen.
Will, we need a champion in the States House to stand up to the Catholic Church! This bill has been looked at by a special committees , rewritten, testimonials from survivors, since 2005. What more could be done, it’s clear that children in our commonwealth are being victimized by child molesters. Not only youth serving organizations, but families. These children are our future. Someone just needs to get that and just do it! Is it going to be you Will, are you going to be our champion to protect children and the future of this state. If not, the repercussions of child sexual abuse leads to suicide, drug/alcohol addiction, tax dollars in mental health and health care. Victims of this crime are breathing but dead inside. Don’t we want to make change and protect these children from a dark future with scars… It’s time Will, please make this your priority. Child sexual abuse is murder of the soul. I have met you and see you as a leader and you care. Do you care enough to get this bill passed inspite of the Catholic Church archdiocese of Boston? Thank you for allowing me to express my thoughts.
Thanks for staying on it
Roseanne, if it were just up to me it would definitely be done already! So far, I’ve failed to get it done, but not for lack of trying. I’ll stay with it! Thanks for standing up on the issue and rest assured that I stand with you.
Senator Brownsberger:
Is it possible to do a poll of the Judiciary Committee, to see where we stand on SOL reform, and maybe that will help move H1455/S633 out of committee?
John Sweeney
Raped 1969
We could poll the members directly by calling them. Undoubtedly, most would indicate support in an informal poll. However, the formal polling process which would actually result in action can only be initiated by the joint action of the Chairs of the Committee. That’s what we are pushing to make happen and it won’t happen until the Speaker of the House asks for it to happen — the House controls all the Joint Committees since they have a majority on those committees.
Will,
We know you are doing what you can! We appreciate it too! The SOL needs to pass this session, House Speaker DeLeo needs to push these bills out of the Judiciary Committee. As we know more Senators and Representatives ARE on board with passing these bills to bring justice for survivors! We need to Stop protecting the predators! PLEASE!!!!
Dear Senator Brownsberger,
I’d like to wish you and your family “Happy Holidays”…and all of the other Senators and House Reps that have worked on behalf of us survivors of child sexual abuse.
While you are enjoying your holidays, please think of survivors like me who have no family left because of perpetrators of sexual violence that have destroyed our lives. As you know my story that I was raped at 14 and impregnated by this man, forced to marry him, experience horrific infidelity by him when he got tired of me at 21 and wanted younger girls (teenaged girls), divorced him when I finally smartened up….lost my daughter as the man and his family stole her away from me….she also may have been molested by him but cannot speak about it with me, has in fact estranged herself (and my 2 grandchildren) from me as she can’t deal with the shame of knowing now that her father “raped” me…and possibly her…and her aunt (the man’s sister when she was 5 and he was 16)…
I will not be seeing my mother, who I finally was able to confront on why she allowed this man to take me and told me to marry him, and didn’t have him arrested for raping me instead, has chosen to not be part of my life as well as she cannot deal with the guilt of her actions and the accountability I am asking her to admit. My sisters and brothers, who all think I should not “bring up the past”….now, when I finally after 40 years of suppressing, repressing, and living in denial about the horror of it all, have found the courage to heal, they have ostracized me.
I will be quietly at home praying this Christmas holiday that the humans that God has allowed to be in power over His people will open their eyes to the injustice and inhumanity of predatory pedophiles oppressing victims of their perversions. Please see to it that this SOL reform bill passes in 2014…maybe next year I will be able to find justice and vindicate my name, and restore my damaged heart, soul, and family.
Madeline CK
Madeline, my thoughts are with you and I hope to be able to help give you some kind of relief in the coming year. Wishing you all the best.
Senator Brownsberger,
As you know many are pushing to get S633 passed. This bill is important to SO many. It’s long over due to get passed. When I read about Legislators taking the time to talk about the State sandwich and State song I shake my head to why is this bill not being passed to protect the victims hurt by sexual abuse and passed to stop these predators from hurting others. PLEASE put this bill to the front of the pile! Thanks Senator! Kathy Picard Ludlow
Thanks, Kathy,
It’s at the top of the pile for me — we just have to get the political pieces lined up and that’s been the hard part so far.