LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE
Do you take delight in watching
films, listening to pop music, or reading books? For English learners, movies,
songs, and books are one of the most wonderful sources to explore the language!
You can indulge in your favorite pastime and still learn some expressions,
words of wisdom, and oftentimes good lessons while you’re at it.
# 11. Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir
of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice (authored by Virginia Roberts
Giuffre)
“We
call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel,
but they do not suffer less because they have no words.” – I thought a lot about
that idea: that you can be in pain even if you can’t articulate it.”
- = Through this sentence, readers
could tell how desperately the author wants to get across the idea that forced
silence of victims of all different kinds of abuse is not an indication that
they are not suffering. They are just hiding pain against their wish in the
form of silence, making themselves and others think they are less than nothing.
“If there were something that was less than nothing, then nothing would
not be nothing, it would be something – even though it’s just a very little bit
of something………….I longed to be worth something again.”
- - The author had gone through sexual
molestation by her own biological father and a friend of his father’s as a
child. She was tossed into the hellish and distorted reality that not only a
child but also any other grown-ups should ever experience in life. Aside from having
dignity as a human being, she repeatedly hit the bottom of her life. She had gradually
become a hopeless person but still tried to hold on to the last drop of hope
for being worth something.
“When
children are abused by people they love, as I had been by my father, they start
to believe that love and pain, love and betrayal, love and violation all go
together. I didn’t know that abuse victims struggle to see red flags because
they’ve become desensitized to inappropriate behavior.”
- - Most people, especially the
young ones, find it hard to realize they are being manipulated in the midst of
back-to-back turmoil. As the author was also much too overwhelmed to see the
danger of her situation. As might be expected of most victims of sexual abuse
and child molestations, she also developed some kind of coping mechanism to
split herself into two halves: “the obedient body and the walled-off mind”
“In my mind, I hold a picture of a girl reaching out for help and
easily finding it. I picture a woman too, who – having come to terms with her
childhood pain – feels that it’s within her power to take action against those
who hurt her. If this book moves us even an inch closer to a reality like that –
if it helps just one person – I will have achieved my goal.”
-
- After her lifetime of physical
and mental torture, the author had summoned all her courage to step forward and
speak up through this book to let the world (full of predators and innocent
preys) know how things should go and make things rights. She said she would be
more than happy if her book could ever make a difference to help innocent abuse
survivors to find freedom and thrive for the rest of their lives.
** Jean’s Small Thoughts:
In addition to being horrified by the
author's agonizing suffering, I was also incensed at the way a number of
infamous individuals—the majority of whom are extremely wealthy and
well-educated worldwide—willfully gave up their humanity while reading this
book. In order to keep the author informed about their perverse desires, they
even led her to feel that she was valuable enough to keep her by saying “She’s
a keeper!”
I highly doubt that the author of this memoir, Virginia Giuffre, committed
suicide. In order to preserve the voice of the survivors and prevent additional
abuse in our society, we must be vigilant in our pursuit of justice.
Here I am presenting a piece of poem written by Hans back in 2012.
Searching for a Hero in You
by
Hans Son
Have you seen the face of a
lost child before?
Have you felt the torment of a
loner to the core?
Who could turn away from their
shout unheard?
Who would let go of their pain
so absurd?
Tossed in empty space breathing
different air,
A soul being chipped away by a
group of hostile glare,
His hopeless eyes are hollering
at me, “Are you there?”
Before another day comes that
resembles his cry of yesterday,
I give him my promise that
peace and harmony are already on their way.
Heartless fellows should not be
the reason for his restless night.
Invisible bruises inside of him
have finally come to light.
No more escaping or succumbing
ahead.
Delight in raising his voice
and saying goodbye to festered dread.
Words of gratitude or tears of
joy are not expected of him now.
A hint of winning smile brought
back to his face is to what I take a bow.
Have you seen the face of a
friend pushed around before?
Have you touched his wound that
is unimaginably sore?
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