No One Knows

So the verdict just came down that Sandusky, the football coach at Penn State, was convicted of some truly horrific number of cases of child sexual abuse.

This blog post isn't going to be about that, though, awful though it is. I'm just using it, since the verdict happened today, to springboard into something else.

There are a lot of children being abused sexually every day. I'm sure more than one is being abused right now, as you're reading this. Recent numbers I read say that 1 in 4 girls will be sexually abused, and 1 in 6 boys. According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, girls are three times more likely to be sexually abused than boys, but boys are more likely to die or be seriously injured from the abuse than girls.

One third to one half of abuse of girls is intra-familial, i.e. incestuous - taking place among family members. The number for boys is lower, but it still exists. There are a lot of girls - and some boys - who were abused as children, by their father, grandfathers, brothers and uncles, and no one ever knew, and no one ever told, and nothing was ever done.

Hence the title of this blog.

My friend and critique partner, Jamie Livingston-Dierks, an author as well as a screenwriter - and a bunch of other things - wrote a short screenplay a year or two ago called No One Knows, about a boy and a girl and child abuse.

It's going to take $7,000 to bring Jamie's screenplay to life. The producers that have taken it on will be filming in Oklahoma City later this summer. At the moment of this writing, they're a little over $4,000 away from making their goal.

I've contributed, both because I love Jamie and believe in her ability and her talent, as well as because I think the story needs to be told. I've never been abused, but I have friends who were. I know what they went through, even if I can't ever truly understand it, and I see the scars, even so many years later.

I'd love it if you'd contribute too. You can find the No One Knows page HERE - the contribution amounts start at $5, and believe me, it adds up. If you contribute at the $25 level, though, $5 of the contribution goes to help fund The ChildHelp Foundation, so it's like two contributions in one!

And to make it worth your while, if you contribute - at any level - and you leave me a note in the comments with your contribution confirmation number, I'll put your name into a hat for the chance to be a character in the next DIY mystery. I'll be starting DIY-7 soon, and although I have no plans to write about child abuse - not very cozy - I can certainly find room for someone's name among the characters. The funding campaign ends Tuesday July 17th, so I'll give it a few days after that in case there are late names going into the pot, and then I'll announce the name of the winner on Friday, July 20th.

Thanks in advance for helping out!