Dana, I am proud of you!

As I was sitting and reading through the Huffington Post, my eyes were pulled to the photo and caption of a friend and former colleague... Dana Jacobson.  The story was about her personal experience of having been molested as a child by by her baby-sitter (see her blog: Dana's Take).  I was stunned, I was saddened, I was lost for words.... but most of all, I was proud.   I was proud that this phenomenal woman was putting herself out there.  The topic of child sexual abuse is never an easy one to deal with, but if you don't have a personal connection to it, you are able to keep a distance.  You have empathy, but you maintain a certain distance.  I had no connection with such atrocities until now, until Dana.

I didn't know Dana then, I cannot change what happened to her, but I feel a hole in my heart all the same.... I want to know why it happened, I want to know what gave that sick person the right, the audacity to take away the innocence of kid in that manner.  All I can do now, is look at my beautiful baby boy and promise to do all I can to keep him safe.  Dana said it best "strangers are supposed to be the one's we fear, not people we know".  It's PAST TIME to change the narrative for our kids, for my kid....

Sadly, this is not new news, the question is what are we going to do about it?  How do we protect our kids?  How do we let our kids know, that just because someone is beloved, popular, well-known, a person in position of power, doesn't give them a pass to hurt?  Better yet, how do we get in front of this madness and keep these people away from our kids in the first place?  I don't want my child to have to tell me about an incident, I want that incident to NEVER HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Dana, you have helped more people than you will ever know.  Perhaps one more pair of eyes will pay closer attention to individuals than before and perhaps one less child will suffer what you and thousands of other innocents should never have ever had to encounter in the first place.