I SALUTE YOU!

Today I was interviewed by Suzanne Perry, host of the Global Forum on Domestic Violence Weekly Radio Broadcast (she is also one of my Lamplighter facilitators). It was an exhilarating experience. I am interviewed frequently on Blog Talk Radio and it never ceases to remind me how many people are trying to make a difference in the enormous problems of child sexual abuse, rape, incest, domestic violence and sexual assault. I want to dedicate this blog to them.

I have 80 Lamplighter chapters in 13 countries. Each of those chapters have Lamplighters who attend their meetings. Some are small in number, some larger. They are all struggling to find more Lamplighters. None of them are paid. They are all donating their time and their energy to being Lamplighters. It makes me so incredibly proud of each and every one of them.

Literally hundreds of nonprofit organizations are on the Internet with websites dedicated to nothing more than trying to make a difference in the world of child sexual abuse. RAINN, Stop the Silence, Darkness to Light, Catharsis Foundation, the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, the National Council on Child Abuse & Family Violence, Pandora’s Box, Lavender Power, Dreamcatchers for Abused Children, Let Go, Let Peace Come In, TAALK, Authentic Voices International, The ACE Study, Bikers Against Child Abuse, NSVRC National Sexual Violence Resource Center, PAVE, (WO)MEN SPEAK OUT, Childhelp.org, Little Boy Broken, Maria Goretti Network, The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Michael Skinner Music, NAPAC, Angela Shelton and last but not least, The Centers For Disease Control. These are only a few. It would take many pages for me to list all of the others.

Then there are the many men and women who have blogs and blog posts both on the Internet and on Facebook. Most were abused as children. Some are advocates. They want to give of their time, their energy, and their past memories to help others who are going through the same thing. 60 million child sexual abuse survivors in the US alone! Think of it! Those are only the numbers reported. It is the tip of the iceberg. But for every survivor there is someone who wants to help, someone who wants to make a difference. In a world filled with non-profits they are struggling to make their voices heard. They have a story to tell. As I said in Chapter One of REPAIR Your Life, “We all have stories that are different; we all have stories that are the same. Repercussions in the life of an incest victim ripple like waves in a body of water, ones that eventually turn into riptides, undercurrents, and sometimes tidal waves.”

Most importantly, of all the people I have dealt with over the last two decades are two men I hold in highest esteem. They are Dr. Vincent Felitti from Kaiser Permanente in San Diego and John Bradshaw, the eminent author, speaker and guru in the world of child sexual abuse. Without these two men there might not be all of the others that followed in their footsteps.

I wish I had the eloquence to tell of my gratitude to each and every one who is working to eradicate this epidemic. You have my heartfelt devotion. You are all my heroes.

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