SILENCE IN RESPONSE TO THE GREATEST TABOO

I’d intended to write this piece three weeks ago but I put it off; chickened out really. I didn’t think I’d be able to make sense of the horror occurring daily in the confines of this space. Even more telling, I wasn’t ready to deal with the hornets nest sure to be stirred up by candid talk of the widespread sexual abuse of girls that reside in ‘the under’. Sexual abuse more often than not at the hands of “momma’s” new lover who moved into the house and made a move on the girl after her daddy had slunk off and tuned out.

 

Now that the sordid Sandusky saga alleging sexual atrocities perpetrated against young boys at Penn State University and the Second Mile Charity is receiving non-stop media play perhaps its time.

I teach Empowerment to individuals stuck in the muck of ‘the under’. I teach to illuminate the path up. For the past several years my students have included ex-offenders, high school dropouts, the chronically unemployed, the functionally illiterate, substance abusers, “at risk” youth and people labeled as “special needs”. Some come from families that have existed for generations under the poverty line; subsisting on a hustle and a hope with allegiance to nothing and no one.

I’ve been amazed by the damage done to many of my students, by their own hand sometimes but predominantly at the hands of a predator; someone who saw their vulnerability or weakness or deficiency and pounced.

Of all the wreckage I’ve walked through teaching in ‘the under’, it is the girls I think that have been wrecked the most. Low self-worth, inability to trust, promiscuous behavior in some, withered emotions in others. Mostly afraid - afraid that the rape won’t stop, afraid that people will know - some afraid because guiltily they crave the attention, still more because they want to kill the rapist or themselves.

Recently I asked a male group I teach to raise their hand if they had children. Every man in the room of about fifteen raised his hand. “How many of you live in the house with them” I asked. Every hand but one went down.

In my Blog dated 10-24-11 I asked if we could talk, seriously talk about curing our ills and fixing ourselves. Can we start here, with this?

What do we do about the girls whose anguish lies hidden and whose wounds run deep? What do we do about the daddies that don’t parent and have abdicated their responsibility to protect and nourish their offspring? What do we do about the mothers who turn a blind eye to the actions of their new man as he creeps Jody-like to destroy her child’s world?

What to do… whom to tell… what to say? I’m not sure so I’m asking you; can we solve this one if we start talking about it?  

COMPLEX PERPLEXITIES AT THE BORDER

The Crisis

    Curiosity
         DREAM BIG!!!

“What’re you doing now” is a question often asked by people who knew me when but haven’t seen me in awhile. “I teach now” is my standard response. “I teach Empowerment.”

I watch their reaction to the word empowerment: uncertain, confused, unsure, unaware. “Empowerment huh” then, “where do you teach?”

“Everywhere and anywhere” comes my ready reply. “Anywhere that ‘the under’ mentality roots; everywhere that the traps to ‘the under’ ensnare.” “Huh?” most respond, perplexed.

In an earlier Post I wrote that I’d been walking in ‘the under’ for a time. You know ‘the under’ probably or you’ve heard tales of it. ‘The under’ is inhabited by those of us classified as under served or under privileged. Its residents more often than not are under-educated, under-employed, under-housed, under-paid, under-valued and under attack. An anything goes underworld if you will; where millions upon millions of people dwell, facing an under-future and a lifetime of living hell.

‘The under’ is the major intake valve for the “Pipeline to Prison”. It is a prime breeding ground for drug abuse, sexual abuse, child abuse and domestic violence. Those stuck there alternate from predator to prey at a moments notice. Their actions are based on a mind-set of ‘get mine by any means’ or ‘me against the world’ or ‘I’m in it by myself’. ‘The under’ is a very scary place because the rules are different or flipped or non-existent. Extreme poverty, distrust and the inability to unite there (as here) reinforce the status quo. Lack of literacy helps control the populace while social isolation allows the resulting mayhem.

Since 2008 I’ve been teaching Empowerment to people mired in the despair of ‘the under’. What I’ve learned since then is as perplexing to me as my cryptic response was to the oft-asked question, “what’re you doing now?”

Mostly I’m perplexed by the general population’s indifference to the chaotic misery in ‘the under’. Perplexed by our silence in the face of the evidence of our rapid societal decline. Perplexed as to why we don’t recognize our direct link to ‘the under’ or accept our collective responsibility to reverse the power of its pull.

The border to ‘the under’ is adjacent to our own and a passport is not needed to cross from one side to the other. The apathy of those not trapped there, combined with our perplexing lack of vision leaves us open and vulnerable. I’m sick of the devastation wreaked on the folks in ‘the under’. I’m tired of the carnage caused through their ignorance and rage. So I teach now. I teach Empowerment.