April is Child Abuse Awareness and Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the U.S.A.

Beautiful artwork by my wonderful friend Michal Madison
www.MichalMadisonArt.net/galleries.html

I wish we didn't need to have these awareness month's, but so many people just ignore what is happening, what has happened to people.  Some don't really care.  But as an advocate for Child Abuse and a survivor of incest/sexual abuse/emotional and physical abuse, I care....I care because I still feel the effects of what happened.  Memories that still come up in dreams/nightmares, a smell, triggers, so many things can bring back what happened.  There are so  many who have been affected by abuse, and so many that are right now being silenced by an abuser, who only wants to satisfy his/her own needs.  Never thinking of the little girl/boy/woman/man that they have inflicted harm to.  The abuser has no conscience.  Little children, who live day in and day out in fear, knowing what was going to happen to them.

When are people going to really look at how abuse harms another?  When are people going to wake up?  Why does another child have to live in the fear and aftermath of abuse?  I wish I could close my eyes and say, "Abuse no more," but that is not going to happen. We can't take it away 100%, but we can open the eyes to the world, letting them know that we will not stop until people start listening.  That people stop putting a taboo on the word abuse, that instead of thinking "what goes on behind closed doors, is none of my business."  Do you really believe that?  Can you with a clear conscience go about your daily life, knowing that the child next door, that the woman/man next door are being abused?  Pretend that you don't hear the screams late at night?  Why do people choose to ignore abuse?  This is 2014, not 1950, where this is what happened.  We need to open the eyes of everyone.

We as adults, need to wake up, create a safer world for the children of the future.  We need to get angry at what is happening and be the voice for all those who silently cry, pretend that it is not happening to them, are afraid to say anything because they have been brainwashed by their abuser.  I wish that I had a voice as a child, but like so many, I was that scared, silent little girl.  Believing that no one would believe what I said.  I pretended that all was good in my world, that I was happy, but deep inside the scars would never go away, they were the "hidden scars" the scars from abuse.

Today, I will say that abuse is out in the open more, but not enough.  It still gets swept under the carpet, so to speak, and we need to be there and take that carpet away, so that it is seen, and kept in the open.
My heart aches for those who are and have been abused.  Some will never make it to becoming a survivor.  They will be led down the wrong path in life, and will suffer in silence.  All others will see is a person who is a "trouble maker," a "druggie," a "prostitute," a person locked up for crimes.  But do they ever find out the reason this has happened to them?  Not always, they suffer in silence by what in some cases caused them to choose the path they did.  They may believe it was all their fault, and this path is their escape.  This makes me very sad, knowing that they could have received help, but no help came, no one saved them as that little child.  A "whirl-wind life" no chance to escape and live a life that they could only dream of.

I am begging you all who read this.  Abuse of any kind leaves scars that run so deep inside our very soul.  If you as a by-stander don't get in there and help, what chance does the next generation have to escape a life that keeps them prisoner?  Please, use your voice, report abuse if you think it is happening.  Get involved, do it for the children of our future, your children, your grandchildren.  Let's remove the stigma of abuse, lets show that we care.  Be a voice, join us who are advocates ~Save a life from abuse!~
Mary Graziano ©
March 30, 2014