My Little Brother and I
A few years ago I agreed to be a part of a local mentor program for disadvantaged young women. I was to help a thirteen-year-old girl with a short story she wanted to write. I drove to her home, picked her up, and we headed off to the library to start work. Midway through one of our first extended conversation she shared with me that her science teacher was “making her life miserable” by giving the class a lot of pop quizzes. She told me that if he didn’t stop giving everyone such a hard time she was going to go to the principal and tell her that the science teacher was sexually molesting her. She admitted the accusation was a lie, but knew it was the only way to get rid of him. I promptly returned the teenager to her home and ended my involvement with the mentor program. Given what happened to my brother I’m wasn’t surprised to learn that people make up awful lies, but I didn’t want to find myself at the end of such an accusation. The teenager I was to mentor possessed no remorse about spreading a lie only pride in being able to come up with a way to eliminate a problem in her life. I had a chance to share this story, as well as the tragic events that happened to my brother Rick, at a book signing event yesterday. I was pleased to see how receptive the audience was about the topic. The problem, which many people know, but few talk about, is that far too many people use accusations of sexual assault for their own gain. In other words, many people have been known to fling false accusations of sexual assault at someone to “get even” for some wrong they feel they have been done. The person who is falsely accused of sexual assault and the family of the person falsely accused may well never recover from the serious damage that is done to their reputation. Even when the accusations are proven false, people often have the thought of the accusation in the back of their minds. That means that the falsely accused person will have lifetime repercussions because of a lie. No matter what a person has done in their lives, they should never have to deal with being falsely accused of sexual assault. You take away everything a person is and everything they are ever going to be. I appreciate the readers who attended the signings this weekend and am grateful for the testimonies others in similar circumstances shared. It’s surprising how many have gone through the nightmare. Wednesday’s journal notes will be back on the Gold Rush.
