Climate Change and Child Sexual Abuse

In recent years I've been focusing more on the environment and child sexual abuse. This week while reading Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church, a book by the Boston Globe about its Spotlight investigation on child sexual abuse, I've been reminded more strongly that central to both problems are outrageous failures to act on obvious evidence that simple steps must be taken. Not acting as soon as possible made matters much worse. This past December I felt similar shock and even anger about this while reading a good summary of climate change published by Oxford University Press--Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know, by Joseph Romm. It was the 2014 first edition, so his discussion about how climate change increases the likelihood of wildfires in California exasperated me.

Climate change and my own health have combined to motivate me since I was an undergrad to walk to reach places. I've nearly always lived within less than a twenty-minute walk of at least one grocery store. In this century, in places like Gettysburg, Madison, and Baltimore, it's usually been at least two grocery stores, which is great for taking advantage of sales.

My concern about child sexual abuse has increased while thinking about what to cover in criminology and intro sociology classes I teach, after learning about Adverse Childhood Experiences research, and when people have confided to me about this happening to them. Many of my students have told me that they'd learned nothing or very little about this before. I wish that I'd known years earlier about the extent and harms of child sexual abuse. Another thing I have been doing is contacting legislators and the news media to get more done. A couple of examples are to enact Erin's Law to teach about sex abuse prevention K though 12 and for public radio talk programs to do shows on the topic. I'd thought that sending letters glued into greeting cards would more likely get attention and action, but I'm very disappointed that I got almost no response. Because of the renewed attention to child sexual abuse in recent months, I'm trying again. I suppose people who were abused would feel a lot worse if they got no response.

Braided Rugs

I hope it's not too late for me to realize that I would like to be back in Gettysburg at this time of year while it's raining. I'm thinking now of visiting my grandparents near the end of a May and I was picked up at the Frederick bus station by my grandmother, a cousin, and a great uncle called Uncle Dump--the memory of finally returning to Gettysburg after being away for awhile as we turned up the Emmitsburg Road and then stopped at the old Visitors Center, where I browsed books. The warmth of my grandparents' home with the circular and oval braided rugs and a smell that I can't bring back. Sliced deli meats wrapped in white paper in their refrigerator fascinated me then because we almost never got that kind of thing where I grew up. The braided rugs also fascinated me when I was a little kid and we still lived in Pennsylvania. I used to try to roll marbles along the grooves, but it was the alternating colors--natural colors: browns, tans, greens, cream--that attracted me. I'm now reminded to look for one of these for my apartment in Baltimore.

I'd planned to be back in Gettysburg this week to attend a talk by an advocate against child sexual abuse and see my grandmother. But I've had to stay in Madison to catch up on grading and to sort through what to take to Baltimore. By not attending I feel that I've let her down and lost a chance. So I tried to make up for it by contacting on Thursday more people in the area to encourage them to attend. The rain and temperatures in the 50s yesterday were about the same as that time.

The rain in April and May also reminds me of walking back in the rain from a showing of the Umbrellas of Cherbourg at the National Gallery of Art. I wonder if my sadness then came from an unconscious awareness of something somewhat like it about to happen to me. And then the rain as I drove through Connecticut back from doing research one April in Boston. That's when a jazz piano work I've liked since I was in Kansas, Peace Piece by Bill Evans, took on the painful reminder feeling it now has for me.

Seen or Heard?: Art and Stopping Human Trafficking (Outdoor Display at UW-Madison in April 2016)

To what extent do people look at and are influenced by such displays? At least the creators and those directly affected might feel from these some kind of accomplishment, some kind of psychological help. But would those not already on board notice and take concrete steps? I suppose the accumulative effects of such efforts help the messages sink in. I wonder if a lingering student thought through this and decided to become an activist or an intern at the capitol was motivated to mention human trafficking to a legislator.

"...intentionally being shown outdoors so that it mimics the fact that trafficking exists all around us, hidden in plain sight."

Last April, from the 4th through the 25th, a photographic display on human trafficking--"Bought and Sold: Voices of Human Trafficking" by Kay Chernush--was placed in the mall that runs between the two halves of the Chazen Art Museum. It's a busy zone for students to walk between bus stops/dorms and the libraries/Memorial Union, so I hope many at least glanced at these to consider the problem. This coming week is a unit in my online classes on art, music, and animals in society, and I'm including these photos to help illustrate this use of art.

The photos with short captions are at the ArtWorks for Freedom website: 

http://artworksforfreedom.org/portfolio-item/bought-sold/

Isthmus article: http://isthmus.com/events/kay-chernush/

To the left and right are the two halves of the Chazen; above and behind is the bridge connecting the two.

This one particularly drew my attention because of the idea of using a mask to survive. I'd add that those who kidnap, rape, and abuse wear "masks" to instigate these crimes and to fool themselves about their cruelty towards others.

The following display of paper cranes was placed in the Madison Public Library's Central Branch last April to observe Sexual Assault Awareness Month. One of my concerns is that these efforts risk being magical thought, which might serve some purposes, such as stress-reduction, but has little, if any, impact. I suppose this type of display is much more than magical thought and can work to convey the message. This is near where children with their parents might walk by to reach the children's books area, so maybe some asked about these and parents possibly discussed the topic of sexual assault and abuse.