“A problem of endemic proportions”, diz a jornalista; where is the national outrage, pergunto eu?

Este post é sobre o abuso de crianças nos EUA; um problema que, embora de enormes proporções, de maneira nenhuma é exclusivo a este país. O que me chamou à atenção foi a natureza do crime, o que me surpreendeu foi a sua enormidade. Recomendo os dez (curtos) vídeos que se seguem a quem tiver crianças a seus cuidados (sobretudo crianças pequenas), a quem gosta de crianças e a todos aqueles que desejam fazer uma diferença. Trata-se de um excelente trabalho da BBC. Vejam, indignem-se...e façam alguma coisa. E, sobretudo, abram os olhos e prestem atenção, que é o que eu vou começar a fazer. Injustiça de toda a espécie afecta-me sempre muito, mas injustiça a seres inocentes e indefesos põe-me doente. Vai escrito em inglês (versão americana) por ser uma língua que, ao fim de quase 4 décadas, já me é mais natural do que a minha língua materna. Infelizmente.  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15288865 .

"We are breeding an army of future child abusers"

Why isn’t the national media bringing this to the public’s attention and why isn't anyone talking about it? Could it be because it’s a truth too inconvenient to bring to light? Or is it because public demand for salacious stories is greater than the demand for newsworthy stories, for the truth? The “official” explanation is that it is a simple equation of supply meeting demand, as what is broadcast is what we want to see; to that, I say: bullshit! With the proliferation of 24-hour news stations, there’s plenty of opportunity for intelligent news stories and for real information; instead, there seems to be a deliberate and concerted effort on the part of the current media oligopoly in dumbing down the population with lewd sound bites and a plethora of stupid reality shows rich in superficiality but deprived of depth. Too many “talking heads” and not nearly enough investigative reporting; worse still, what passes as “investigative reporting” is, nowadays, nothing more than yellow (tabloid) journalism.  It’s a sickening, loathsome, sad reality that I refuse to accept. Whatever happened to the Edward R Murrows and Walter Cronkites of this world? Please, give us (the consumer) a little more credit. Please stop insulting our collective intelligence.

Most of these stories are limited to the local news. When one goes viral and grasps the nation’s attention, the victim is usually a little blond girl with blue eyes who hails from a middle or upper middle-class family; how often are these stories about little girls and boys from the “ghetto”, “hood”, or “wrong side of the tracks?” As someone so eloquently once said, “We have an Amber alert; we don’t have a Shaniqua alert.”

Maybe, to a certain extent, the public is at fault; but not entirely. In spite of a certain level of denial that atrocities such as these only happen in someone else’s backyard (and whether the culprit lies in inefficient management, the ever-present budget cuts, the never-ending bureaucracy, public apathy or in the lowly overworked and underpaid social worker) I’m a firm believer that throwing a problem under the rug is no way to solve it. In order for things to change there needs to be public outrage, even if it’s from simple “overloading” of information. These kids without a voice need to know that they haven’t been forgotten. And why did I have to watch this excellent exposé in a foreign news site?

“Once you’re abused you don’t know anything else other than anger and violence (…) and you really have to work at it to change (…) the more damaged these kids become, the more damaged society becomes (…)” -  Stacey Kananen, former abuse victim, on the consequences of child abuse and on how to break this cycle of violence. 

Let’s stop being shocked when the childhood lives of the likes of Ariel Castro, Grisela Blanco and Aileen Wuornos (just to mention a few) become public.  Does calling them monsters and sending them to death row solve any problems? Is revenge the only solution? Not everything is an “excuse” that should be dismissed, sometimes there are “causes”, contributing factors that should be taken into consideration. This world of ours is not as “black or white” as some insist; there’s an awful lot of grey as well.

So, let’s stop being hypocrites and let’s start by getting to the root of all this evil. Not everyone reacts the same way to the same stressors, so why take any chances? We already have enough psychopaths and sociopaths walking around, so let us start with preventive measures and let us start being proactive rather than reactive. Let us prepare for the worst and hope for the best. And more importantly, let us stop looking the other way. The words “children” and “injustice” should not even be in the same sentence. These kids should be subjected to lots of love, discipline and attention, not abuse – be it verbal or physical. Nobody deserves abuse.

It would also help if politicians and businessmen alike stopped obsessing about quarterly goals and next election cycles and started thinking in terms of the long run. Too idealistic? No. Not with public outrage. Not with a well-informed consumer. Grassroots movements can be a thing of beauty.