I am so incredibly thrilled to have this book in my hands!
In order to celebrate, we are giving away 5 signed copies of "What is a Little Boy Worth?" All you have to do is Like & retweet; we will pick 5 winners at random and reach out through DM's.
I wrote "What is a Little Girl Worth?" as a poem to my daughters during Larry Nassar's sentencing hearing as I watched hundreds of my Sister Survivors bravely testify. I wanted them to know that no one could do anything to diminish their value one iota.
This is a message boys need to hear as well, & that's why we wrote, "What is a Little Boy Worth?"However, perhaps the most surprising response to this book has been from grown men. Men & boys often suffer in shame and silence & feel that movements like #metoo are not for them.
The message of this book is that every person is worth fighting for, that every person has inestimable worth, and that every person is worthy of love, not because of what they've done or what value society assigns, but because of what God says they are worth: Everything.
While it's been officially released, the dreaded "supply chain issues" are delaying shipments. Amazon is saying it will ship on March 8th, which is as early as I have seen:
Nearly every organizational leader pulls this line - refusing to honestly diagnose problems before insisting on "looking forward", expecting that we will all simply believe things are now fine.
But if you can't diagnose, admit and grieve the failures, you can't fix them either.
No one is safe from the dynamics of abuse Kyle Beach experienced, because leaders haven't actually grappled with the damage and the causes. If they had any respect for what Kyle went through, or felt the need to protect others, they couldn't have answered this way.
Be better. Do it differently.
Independent investigation with access to all relevant information.
Fully public report with no limits on what is published save protecting survivor identities.
@S_L_Sanderson We homeschool and my kids are 10, 7, 6 and 3. They've heard and seen a fair bit through what I teach and through my work, and I've tried to answer that question before it's even asked. Usually when we are talking about anything like that, it starts and ends with some version of..
@S_L_Sanderson "It's so important that we knew these things because:
1. The way bad things keep happening is when we choose to pretend they aren't happening. XYZ could have been stopped and so many people saved if the people around it had been willing to stop it, instead of ignoring it...
@S_L_Sanderson It's easier and safer to ignore those things, but making the choice to not see something is why it can keep happening.
2. We have to understand it because there are always consequences to choices, and the consequences of a lot of these things can still be here even if...
If she had been interested in doing the right thing and telling the truth, she could have and should have done it before putting survivors through the hell of a trial. She could have, and should have, told the truth and accepted responsibility immediately.
Hopefully she follows through. The survivors deserve it. And if she does, it will be their strength, their courage, and their sacrifice that is the real cause.
This thread, and the one linked inside it, are so important to understand what survivors still face in our justice system. I can't stress enough how incredibly rare my case against Larry was, in its handling, time frame and outcome.
We had a sentencing hearing on less time than I expected to wait just to get possible charges, IF we were one of the statistical anamolies whose cases even got charged - and if the local prosecutor had had their way, there would have been no charges even after everything I did.
There's this perception, after everyone saw the sentencing hearing, that there's been a big shift now after our case. NOW survivors can speak up, NOW action will be taken. NOW post-Nassar and post "MeToo" we've made changes on our justice system.
What was on display in this trial was the rebuttal, yet again, of the most common rape myths that cripple our societal response to abuse:
1. The idea that memories of abuse are easy to implant and frequently inaccurate or manufactured.
2. The oft-repeated trope that survivors come forward because they are motivated by money and fame.
3. An in - depth portrayal of how grooming and trafficking really happens, and why so many survivors don't "just fight back." This is a critical reality we need to understand.
Josh Duggar has been found guilty on two counts of downloading and possessing CSAM. So much grief for the survivors, and for everyone caught in the cross hairs. Perhaps most disturbing however is how the patterns noted in this earlier post, played out...
Despite clear evidence, there was no grief at what was, but rather a continual effort to thwart justice and deny. From a family member who changed his testimony on the stand, to a father who "couldn't remember" the abuse of his own four daughters, to a wife who held his hand...
The focus continued to be the living out of the same twisted theology that led us here.
The situation for everyone is devastating, but acting as though this isn't serious only furthers the devastation.
What Anna needs is someone to validate how evil this is, and grieve with her