What do you mean, you don’t live in
Florida? Here I am sitting at the pool and writing this blog. Its 86 degrees, sun-shiny and warm. It rained a little this morning. What is a little rain, you ask? The sky grew dark, ominous. The clouds gathered together as if Mother Nature’s minions had banded together with their only thought being the destruction of mankind. Silence. No birds, no insects nothing to disturb the oppressive solitude and isolation caused by the ever darkening, once puffy white cloud formation. The rain came softly at first, gathering speed as it descended from the storm clouds. A faint drop fell on my forehead. I took no notice. It was as if the faucet was turned a quarter of a turn, just enough. A trickle of warm, silver, liquid touched the passing car windows and forced the drivers to put on their wipers. As I walked along under the umbrella of palm tress still I took no notice. Rain. It was something that someone else had to worry about. It wouldn‘t ruin my day. My day is Sunday. A blessed reprieve from the rigors of the work week. I had the good fortune on this day to be healthy, realtively happy and at this precise moment in time, content. I stopped as I reached a large spacing between the trees. The rain had increased in its intensity. I could see the slanted pattern of the rainfall as it slammed into the asphalt pavement. With no desire to get wet and ruin my new haircut, let alone drench my clothes, I did as I always did during these “commercial interruptions” from Mother Nature. I stood and I watched. I looked at my watch. It had been about 10 minutes since this mini-deluge began. It wouldn‘t be long now. Without warning the faucet closed, the dark forces of the heavens parted, and old Sol broke up the remains of the retreating army. I smiled, shook my head at the silliness of
South Florida’s rain storm and continued on my way.Everyday should be like this. That’s why I moved to
Florida. Why wait until retirement when you can have all of the advantages while you are still young, productive and vibrant. Ok, so I don’t fit all of the characteristics. One out of three ain’t bad. Maybe one is too many. Maybe I have to make up some new criterion so that I can fit into this lifestyle. Whatever! As the kids say.
I have taken you for a stroll in part of my world. This is the nice, happy part. But I also belong to another world. A world where the darkest of clouds may never dissipate. Where the sun may shine, but is never noticed. Where parents who are so involved with their own problems and stresses from just trying to make ends meet will avoid, control or beat their children. They do this in order to shape the children into a mold that the parent feels is more appropriate then the one they are in. We don’t want to look at this world. Others may consider it the underbelly of our society. The secret world that no one wants to talk about. This is a part of life that we can look in on during our leisure when we watch television and see an episode of shows like Law and Order: SVU, or Without a Trace. Our Television Executives understand that the public can’t take too much of these stories, many of which are probably based upon some fact.
Not knowing what the truth behind the episode was, I couldn’t vouch for the authenticity of what we see on the screen. I do know that in every good story there is an element of truth. Add that to the fact that in my daily 9 to 5 job, I work the streets. I see parts of these stories in real life. I see the parents, the teachers, the relatives, but most of all I see the children. I am an investigator. A Police Investigator. I specialize in child abuse. As I go about my daily tasks I see stories of lives changed, families broken by parents being arrested and jailed. I see children whose lives will never be the same due to sexual assault. I see children who have died. In my world children’s lives don’t stop because the commercial comes on and there is another show on the way. What happens to them? Why should we care?
My office handles 13-1500 cases every month. Year in, year out. We cover one county in
Florida. This is no more then a mere dot. A pin point on a map, a microcosm of the bigger picture. The entire State of Florida, every State in the
Union, every Country in the World has this problem. To think about it boggles the mind. Can we do anything to change it? Certainly. We are trying through legislation, education, social workers and families that take an active interest. Relatives step in to help children who can’t help themselves. Will the illness which has manifested itself as a great gan grene-ous, cancer-like tumor on our society ever be eliminated? If the answer is yes, it certainly won’t happen in our lifetime. If the answer is no, then our advancement as a society and perhaps as a civilization may be genetically crippled, like a beautiful flower that has a horribly ugly festering abscess growing from it. We can look at the flower only if we hide the lesion. How can we allow this behavior by our parents, relatives and friends to continue without exposing them to the sunlight of public scrutiny. They must be shamed in full public view and have them vocally admit to the world what they have done to our children. Those that perpetrate this villainy must be exposed, and tracked like the worst sexual predators. In this way perhaps people will think twice before they engage in this heinous activity. If we do this then perhaps the rain will fall for the reason that Mother Nature intended and not as her tears for our helpless children.
