Victims

~ Maybe now we can get somewhere

Maybe we, as a collective can get to the place where the lies, torture and denial are not growing under our feet, embedded in the foundation of what we once called our democracy.

Democracy as Merriam Webster defines, is an organization in which everyone is treated equally and has the right to participate equally in management, decision-making, etc.

Victim: One that is injured, destroyed, or sacrificed under any of various conditions; a living being sacrificed to a deity or in the performance of a religious rite; one that is subjected to oppression, hardship, or mistreatment

When Trump was first elected in 2016, it was the women that were voting for him that enraged me first. Women that chose Trump struck me as cruel. Blatantly unwilling to look to their horrendous family dysfunction, many had a narcissistic father, whom they still called “Daddy”. There were women that colluded because this choice was their best proximity to power. And racist women raised in moral depravity who adopted this political party on purpose. There were women who had always belonged to a system of misinformation and manipulation. Women who could not, did not or would not think for themselves. Their ignorant votes betrayed a nation of women, children and victims.

Rape whistles have long fallen on deaf ears.

The disturbing nature of the Epstein files (of which we’ve seen a third) include the burial and murder of babies, women and children. The absence of each victim’s identity is not just a redaction. The reader’s focus stays on powerful men, rage and exhaustion. And erases the human beings that suffered these atrocities from our sight.

The Epstein files, their protection and the news cycle has been centered around and narrated by powerful men. When will our culture consider the innocence it feels entitled to destroy? When will the “fresh” young, beautiful children and adults who suffered these egregious acts be protected by a society that chooses to revere and elect their monsters?

Missing is basic humanity and actual protection for those that were pawns in the games of countless wealthy men using little bodies for sick entertainment and perversions.

Those bodies are people. Those blacked out photos and names and statements are human beings suffering until their very last day. Those bodies in some cases never got to grow up. Many were murdered and discarded in attempts to hide evidence and thwart threats to power.

Those who grew up against all odds, only to be mocked and asked why they didn’t tell sooner?

One wouldn’t have to spend many brain cells to consider why they didn’t square off, without resources, to those in charge of their survival and immense systems of authority. These victims had already seen evidence destroyed and their humanity denied in a sea of systems designed for the powerful. At every turn they were called liars. Accused of speaking up so they could get paid off, caring only about the money of their abusers. (A rich distraction from truth as those who sold, traded and profited off the trafficking of hundreds of thousands of children)

Each living victim carries a lifelong weight of terror, betrayal, humiliation and an inability to trust or lead a life uncomplicated by the ravages of PTSD. Their pain became ever more immense with the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and all that he stood for as America embraced and chose their values. Victims to democracy and a culture that spent them like coins.

As if being a world leader was not enough power, Trump would get behind a Bible and use religion in order to twist the minds of vulnerable Christians seeking salvation into seeing him as their righteous authority and savior. This is another enlightening review of culture’s preference for power over truth. And an abomination for those harmed by the church and those who came from families that hid behind religion to justify horrors and abuse under protection of old scriptures and golden crosses.

Some deeply sick people have twisted the word victim to protect predators and criminals. Victims wear the shame, the shroud, and the silence, while predators enjoy the finest offerings of this world. Anyone who begins to unravel the destruction done to them is warned not to think of themselves as a victim. This is the illness of a society incapable of conscious compassion and care for those whose only “crime” was beauty, availability, and youth.

Victims beginning the unraveling of their destruction are met with more authorities, more abuses of power. Over and over. Priests who repeated abuse. Police who fumbled evidence. FBI agents who left tips unfollowed. Healer, therapists and friends who warned against thinking of themselves as victims.

Society’s inability to hold conscious compassion and care for those whose only crime was beauty, availability or youth now ostracized and excluded from connection and support in a culture that reiterates its preference for power.

The mantle of shame made heavier by a label adhered with disdain from a culture unable to acknowledge what they had inflicted. Victim. As in just another victim. Or the new age slime She/he/they’re such a victim. The welcome oasis of a return from trauma did not exist for most victims as they were handed back what society could not help them carry.

Dirty laundry is for victims to deal with, not society.

It would be right that this gross trope changes to bear the alert of one’s behavior toward victims.

Who do you know that has been victimized and then ostracized?

What was your part in that?

Who in your circles have you pushed back, avoided or excluded in fear that their trauma would affect your comfort?

Which victims have you excluded so as not to risk your proximity to power?

Those who have not come to terms with familial abuse or who were lucky enough to enjoy a healthy upbringing and enjoyed protection and good-enough wholesomeness tend not to fully engage or believe victims. They will not want to bring into focus what victims endured in contrast to their own privilege. They have a particular disgust and inability for such topics as if that absolves them from responsibility for their contribution to the sickness in the web of the world.

The still unconscious (or) colluders will alienate and distance the traumatized, not wanting to deal with their PTSD symptoms that their weird or crazy “friends” exhibit. These are the folks that don’t talk about politics or would rather not get involved. (A note to victims: These folks never had the capacity to be your real friend and their absence clears more rubble on your jammed path forward).

If there is any redemption in these days of the Epstein exhumation, it might be that we hold victims in support and encircle care and protection around what is precious and withdraw attention and fixation on the violent powerful criminals. Sick power has taken too much already from our culture and our presence is needed in other places. Together we could orient ourselves treat each other better in this what now? phase of America. As consciousness is stretched and comfort is disturbed what actions will you take?

We have barely begun to open our eyes. .

What three words that come to mind when you hear the word victim?

What do we believe about who becomes a victim?

What do victims need from culture?

Whose job is it to support US victims?

Ask yourself to consider a child dragged to Epstein Island, or Mar a Lago or to a teen pageant whose body was then trafficked and used to fuel perversion and profit the wealthy. These innocents were raped, sodomized, beaten, threatened and discarded.

How has culture denied victims a place of belonging? Do victims deserve your conscious and unconscious punishment? Your wrath of exclusion and separation from your tables? Or worse, utter erasure as you turn your attention to the fixation of the powerful at whose hands these victims bled?

Victims have been hunted by our country’s leaders like ICE now hunts immigrants. To humiliate, punish, silence and snuff out their birthright to life and dignity.

When the cabinet and House at the center of our country is riddled and filled with depraved criminals we must acknowledge that those who voted for this and continue to defend it are not people that any children should be around. The children that deserve our very best presence and protection from pedophiles.

NY Times headlines this morning are “Powerful Men in Files” “Epstein’s Relationship With Leaders” “ Epstein’s Inner Circle” These looky-loos barely mention the trauma carried by the victims of these crimes. The files, the protection, and the news coverage have centered powerful men. When will our culture consider the lives of victims that it feels entitled to deny?

Liam Ramos was a victim. The 5 year old little boy in the blue bunny hat taken to a prison detention center in Dilley, Texas was a test, cruel optics to feed this administration’s love of power.

Liam was retrieved today and brought back to Minnesota by people who care about the innocence of a child. The support Liam had and hopefully will continue to have is a far cry from what most victims receive. Perhaps this is progress and consciousness in lawful action. The letter written by Joaquin Castro to Liam today offers healing and compassion. The actions taken, and a letter like this is a beacon of example which every victim of cruelty and abuse would do well to receive.

If US culture is going to topple the table and heal towards conscious humanity it will begin with a change in language and behavior for each of us. Who we believe, who we protect, and where we place our attention.

Protections for The Constitution are never ending rage bait arguments taking us away from the necessary protection for the precious in our proximity. And a return of our attention to guard the victims, listen to their stories and to believe We the People hold the power of restoration. It could never and will never be restored by proven predators.

Stop asking why victims didn’t speak up and start asking why no one stepped up. Redemption, if it exists, will be found only in the choice to see clearly and compassionately the ways we have buried innocent victims. We can choose now to call them back in, closer. Each of us can start by excavating what lives in our own house of denial. Who (else) in our families and circles have been asked to bear their trauma in isolation?

Within your family and circles:

Who has been shunned or excommunicated, and why?

Who holds power, and why?

Who controls the narrative?

Who was silenced?

The work ahead is not abstract. It is intimate, familial, cultural, and collective. It is not divisive, not separated by color or gender. Our work is not exclusive, but inclusive. We are asked to hold this whole grim picture while we separate hand-me-down unconsciousness and truth. We can choose the road of repair by acknowledging what we have broken by attention to false power.

Getting somewhere requires everyone who cares to be braver than ever. To do a tiny bit of the work victims have been doing all along. Victims might even be able to hold the flashlight while you look, so you don’t have to do it alone. Like they did.

Thank you Ro Khanna and Tom Massie for your perseverance towards justice.

May an endless pack of wild boars forever chase the criminals at our helm.

XO