Show Its It's time to clean house Month after month tragedy after tragedy year after year the media have forced Americans to look into the mirror and and recognize that child abuse can and does happen In our town or city and yes even on our own block block said Dr Louis W. W Sulivan secretary of Health and Human Services at the opening opening opening open open- ing session of the Eighth National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect held in Salt Lake City last week Noble words but lets stop beating around the bush lets let's look into the mirror and ask ourselves this question is it happening at our house Because its it's sure as hell happening at someone's house The numbers coming to light speak for themselves Dr Sulivan says one in ten infants born in America have been exposed to drugs while in their mothers womb Let me sharpen the picture for you he said liTo Today day on Oct 22 1989 1200 babies have been born who have already been exposed to drugs Those are scary figures but you aint seen nothing yet According to the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect children are physically abused yearly John Bradshaw host of the highly acclaimed PBS television series Bradshaw on The Family however says There is no good data on the extent of physical abuse The usual data covers those cases which are estimated that there are unreported cases for every case reported That is times Scared yet In December 1984 Cheryl McCall reported in Life Magazine that There are perhaps 34 million of us in America America adult adult women who were victims of sexual abuse In 1988 Kids ids are Special al a California based child advocacy program program program pro pro- gram reported that one in three girls and one out of seven boys will be sexually assaulted by the time they are 18 and heres here's the kicker only kicker only 15 of those assaults will occur from strangers five Eighty-five percent of all sexual offenders are known to the child Child abuse isn't occurring down the block its it's happening in the house and its high time that as a asO sO society ety we stop talking about those guys and we start talking talking talking talk talk- ing inI in I I messages when we talk about child abuse Was I abused How am I I. treating my kids Do I really know what constitutes child abuse What can I do to stop this crime in my community C Child ild abuse is not an epidemic in this country its it's a way ay of of life If we are striving to be De a free people and to have a free sO society ety lets begin by freeing our children That entails coming out of denial about what's happening in our own homes Horizon supports and admires the courageous citizens and professionals who have the guts to address these sensitive and sometimes volatile issues Lets stop hedging and tackle this issue head on endeavoring to stop the heinous degradation of our most pre precious ous resource resource our our children We are gr grateful that the Eighth National Conference on Child Abuse and N Neglect was held at our house this year and not down the block i |