If I Were Oprah Winfrey

We can't reinvent the wheel, but we can think and act upon "the next step".

When the first person invented the wheel, what did they do with it? Did it just lay around for years or did they find a way to utilize it to make a wheel barrow? Did they roll it down a hill just for fun? Did they put a log in between two wheels to make some kind of cart and move large stones or other building materials? How long did it take for them to find uses for that wheel? How long did it take for them to take "the next step"?

The next step is very important.

I was watching The Oprah Winfrey show about the 100 men who braved coming forward to proclaim that they had been molested. There were men of all ages and races and background's. I was sitting there thinking this is all wonderful and everything but I was also angry that seemingly no one was taking the "next step" or "steps". There was no in depth searching for how friends or family were reacting to this. There were no discussions as to what the partners role in all of this was. There was no talk of how many people supported them or how many people left them in the dust or tossed them "under the bus" when they first came forward. No one took the next step.


If I were Oprah Winfrey I would start with questions on what happened with their family and friends when they first came forward about the abuse. As for the men who DID come forward I would like to know when they first realized that they had been molested and when did they "come out" to their family or friends about it. Did they come forward to their loved ones right away or was it closer to the time they appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show? What was the fall out, if any, afterwards. From personal experience if a young person around mid to late twenties comes forward many times the young person is not believed and is told point blank that they will not be supported and further they will be cut off from their family. This happened to me and to a few others who tried to get support from their families shortly after the horrendous memories came to them. If you just sit on your memories and reveal them when you are in your mid 40's or later are you more to be believed then? If you establish a family or career before you reveal yourself to be survivor of sexual inappropriateness are you more a candidate to be more credible? Are people still prone to believe that you have some of those "false memories"? Who invented and vocalized the term "false memories" anyway?!? Could it have been a pedophile who was well established and in the field of psychology?

I like to look at child sexual abuse solutions in the same way mathematicians look at problems. I believe that if you find the common denominator you are on the right track to finding the real root of the problem and in that you can begin to really address the issue at the root. I have not seen this approach done by anyone and it is high time that this method is at least tried.

If I were Oprah Winfrey I would push to have talks with younger people. In the junior high level to begin with. I would speak about and ask questions as to the attractions that younger people were having. I would try to get to the people who may have sexual attractions to children. At that point, in a persons junior high school, if they have attractions to children in a sexual way most likely they have acted upon it already. You may be putting an end to a long term pedophile. In speaking with younger people of this age you could also in an age appropriate way speak about nature and explain that a certain percentage of people are gay, bisexual or straight and then their would be some talk if needed about the smaller percentages of people who were transgender or transsexual. I believe that would all be done through a health class.

I believe that every person should have clear memories of each year of their life. Most people are not going to have month to month memories or a vast catalogue they can refer to but I truly believe that we all should be able to sit down and write at least a few sentences about each year of our life. I remember a great deal from my life. I can remember each year of my life and tell you where I was living. I can tell you a little of each of the three houses I lived in in my infancy and early childhood. There was a time, a vast amount of time that I could not remember because much of it was very abusive and those memories were immediately buried as part of self preservation, but when I did have the memories and had to put them all together I was able to remember a great many happy times as well.

If I were Oprah Winfrey I would use the vast amount of power that she has to get to the root of the issues and push to assess what is being done to address child sexual abuse. What procedures are working? Which ones are not doing anything.

If I were Oprah Winfrey I would try to count the uncounted. We all need to count in this world but there is a vast number of people who's childhood sexual abuses were NEVER counted, that is they were never reported to the authorities.
If you think that the authorities are taxed due to the numbers of child sexual abuse cases reported, can you imagine what would happen if ALL of the incidents were reported? I have no doubt they would literally crumble.

The pedophiles out there are a huge number of people. They have such organization that they are difficult to find to trace and to stop. The people fighting for the rights and basic needs of children free from sexual abuse really have to step up to the plate and be more integrated more organized and more diligent than the pedophiles.

If I were Oprah Winfrey I would have a website devoted to all the organizations fighting for the rights of children. It would be a vast database for all the people in the organizations to brainstorm about new and innovative approaches to getting to the root of the issue. It is all about "taking the next step". They would all be connected to the local authorities and the FBI to see what persons in their community were sex offenders. They could see if a person was not registering as they should. The website to begin with would only be available to the organizations registered but I think it important to have some connections with the community with an open forum.

If I was Oprah Winfrey I would seek to have more of the security systems interconnected. Are there not ways to "spot" convicted sex offenders with the use of computer technology if they are spotted on a surveillance monitor?

There are so many more steps I would take if I were Oprah Winfrey and these are just a few of the "next steps" I would take. But I am not Oprah Winfrey and mabye it is not fair for me to use such a public figure to get my points accross but I am doing it anyway in hopes that maybe it will be a little more empowering to use her name to try to give some empowerment to the vast number of little children who were molested in the time it took for me to write this part of my blog. My appologies to Miss Oprah Winfrey if she is offended.