I refer to Lutchman Gossai's well articulated, passionate letter, "We need a kinder, gentler nation'' in which he urges us to be more compassionate, kinder and gentler as a nation even as we are increasingly bombarded with many disturbing images through the media of the ills within our society. His letter, written in response to mine, "Sterner measures needed against sexual abuses of children", was one among many that provided insight into the concerns of others about the issue of child abuse in our society.

It is interesting and significant that many are appalled at these heinous violations, but many are questioning whether the "Authorities" concerned will actually do something to send the message to potential
abusers that, as a nation, we will not tolerate this continuous violation or whether measures will be put in place to provide counselling and support to the young, voiceless victims. Some of my friends think that I am a "voice crying in the wilderness", but they nevertheless wholeheartedly encourage me to continue highlighting these issues of concern.

In the US, many states have established a sex offender registry so that the public is advised when a convicted sex offender moves into the neighborhood. This permits the possible protection of children in the neighborhood from sexual predators. And even while we are attempting to initiate systems to deal with prosecuting these cases, we cannot deny that it will take significant courage for people to face the court where the victim is often exposed to little sympathy and much ridicule. As has happened in many of the more recently reported cases, sexual and physical abuse have happened in homes where the perpetrator is the principal breadwinner and the family depends on his contributions to stay fed, housed, and clothed. Consequently, the issue of immediate survival of the entire family takes precedence over the needs of the victim. Concern has also been expressed that there may be the rare case where an adult may be deliberately maligned by a vindictive child or family, and may be unable to clear the stigma of child abuse from his name, or to resume life as they knew, before such an accusation.

When one considers the road safety campaigning of Mothers in Black and STILL after almost two years of resolute and prominent lobbying, the traffic laws and current enforcement are yet to be upgraded. I realize quite realistically that while it's all well and good for me to draw
attention to these issues, it takes a COLLECTIVE effort for a practical, positive resolution to these issues.

We just seem to have a 'sit back and accept' attitude... even when the
issue concerns and affects us personally! How long must we wait before those in authority become proactive to reduce the incidents of physical and sexual child abuse? Why must we wait until another child is abused, or even killed before we raise our collective voices in their aid? Why do we seem to feel naively that these incidents happen only to other people's children, and are unlikely to happen to our own?

Beverely Conway