Voices of the Unheard....

Abuse comes in many forms whether it’s Physical, Emotional, Psychological, Verbal and we haven’t even mentioned Elder Abuse, Child Abuse or Sexual Abuse. No matter what it is, it affects us all in some way. With the media bringing to the forefront the individuals from the hashtag #Me Too Movement who have recently stood up and shared their experiences of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Abuse with the Nation, I have to wonder about the ones who have yet to come forward and tell their stories. The ones who are still clinging to the notion that “what goes on in this house, stays in this house” or the ones who dared to tell someone and no one believed them. The headlines read, “Raped at 8, pregnant at 10, forced to marry her rapist at 11”, sounds disturbing right? I agree but it didn’t stop me from reading this woman’s story of the shattered childhood that she experienced. She spoke about as a young child at the age of eight, she was raped on several occasions by individuals in her church, told her mother what happened to her and her mother dismissed her story as lies or a total fabrication of the actual truth, was informed by the school nurse that she was pregnant and then dragged to two different counties by her mother to find a judge who would agree to marry this individual and her abuser. For years, this woman suffered child abuse, and no one cared enough to listen to what she had to say. Is this the life that some people are destined to live? I once heard someone say, “The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life without purpose.” We must learn to listen to others when they speak. We say that we are listening, but are we really listening? I know we are sometimes consumed with our everyday lives and what we need to get off our chest but who is listening to the voices of the unheard…