I was watching Oprah today while folding laundry! At 4 pm it is usually the best thing on! Today was about child predators and the Internet. I watched as I always do with these kinds of shows with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness on how to truly protect my kids! They talked about Adam Walsh. If you do not know his story or who his father John Walsh is than you should learn about them!!
As I watched the show I listened to Oprah talk about these "monsters" and how she wanted people to know that they are not monsters as in your imagination that cannot hurt you, They are real! And can even be the neighbor next door! As I listened to them realized I wanted or really Needed to do something to help get these "Monsters" out of the dark and in to the open so we can see who they are and better protect our children from them!
So I've decided two things, One is we need to get money from our government to help the police and detectives and others fight these predators! As John said we ( whether we wanted to or not) paid for the bailout for the automotive industry so why not pay for what is more important!!
And the second is to tell my family's story about these "Monsters" and how real they are!!
So here is our story:
Daniel and I moved here almost 5 years ago. We did our research about where to live and even looked up where the sex offenders lived. We loved our neighbor hood and we loved our neighbors!! Even though we live in a "big" city we felt good about where we lived!
we heard stories from friends about predators, read stories in emails about protecting your children! But we felt we were ok!
I was even over protective!! I rarely let the kids out in the front and if I did I was with them! If they were in the back yard I would check on them every five minutes and keep the door open to hear anything even though we have a fully fenced back yard that is pretty private from anyone except our neighbors! Like I said we "felt" safe!
We had lived here over a year when our next door neighbor, Pete, came and said he and "Michelle" were getting a divorced! Dan was at work so we talked on the porch about how sad it was and how we should get together sometime! (Pete had always seemed nice to me! and had even helped me when I threw out my back trying to move a rock! ) He said we was going to be living with his mother a few blocks away for a while so we should have dinner sometime!
I told Dan how sad it was and said that maybe "Michelle" was having problems because Pete was a nice guy so it had to be her! Dan and I talked and then that was it! We still saw "Michelle" and talked to her! But nothing much!
Than one night, three months later, we were laying in bed watching TV when a commercial came on for the news that night. I yelled and hit Dan who was lying next to me! Up on the screen was a mug shot of our next door neighbor Pete! He had been arrested for child pornography! I sat anxious as I waited for the news that night! We watched in stunned, shocked, and overwhelmed silence as the newscaster told about Pete and how computers were seized and how he had been one of 22 predators busted in a nationwide effort to catch and put predators away! how he had pictures and videos of child porn!
I cried!!! I yelled and screamed at Dan!! How was this possible???? We had done everything we were supposed to!! and here was the monster living NEXT DOOR!!!!
Dan and I talked about it and thought about it and realized not once had there ever been a time that he could have touched our children! But we realized that we did not know if he could have taken pictures! We talked and argued even more about what to do! Do we call do we not! after a couple of days we realized we couldn't know! We realized that for sanity sake we needed to not know! Call us crazy but we made the choice to not call and ask! I mean how do you ask a question like that? And how would we be sure it was our child? Do we look at pictures?
We knew the police confiscated whatever he had! And it would cause us more harm to know than to not know!
Pete was sentenced to ONLY 6 YEARS!!!! I sit here and realized maybe I could have testified against him and possibly made that longer but I was trying to protect my self and my family from becoming a part of the "story"!
The reason I share this story is to let you know that you can do everything to protect your family but that doesn't mean it won't come and find you!! We all need to do whatever we can to stop this!!!! Oprah and John Walsh are asking us to send a letter to our senators and state representatives and demand that the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act gets funding and re-authorization by the July 2009 deadline! I feel strongly that we can all make a difference if we at least send an email or letter or call and make this happen! Little by little we can make it happen! This is the link to Oprah's web site to find a letter to email or print off! I have done it to both of mine and it takes 5min!!!!! Please do it!! thanks for listening!!!! Lets stop these monsters!!!
http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090220-tows-adam-walsh-act
