The problems faced within the resedential schools, are beyond repair. No one can take back the sexual assult done to those innocent children. No one can take back the physical abuse, or the verbal abuse done towards the youth. The damage has already been done, and it will effect the First Nations People forever. The fact that they were treated any differently because of their religion, beleifs, or race, upsets me, but to know that they were treated so inhumanlike, disturbs me. To know that another human, such as myself could inflicked pain on another so heavily is beyond unbeleivable to me and it makes me disapointed in my own countries past.
As Kaprise says, reducing or cutting taxes doesn’t compare to the abuse they underwent and the government will never be able to make it up to the natives.
As Lisamarie dealt with her problems, drinking her days away and partying her nights away, she slowly began trying to clean up her act towards the end of the book. She tried to quit drinking but with a visit to Aunt Trudy’s house, failed to do so. But the fact that she tryed to do so, shows that she knows she isn’t handling things in the best ways and is aware that she has done something wrong.
Lisa was also going through the problem of dealing with her gift of communicating with spirits. She see’s a little leprican/troll-like red haired man appear when someone is in danger, and after the deaths of her grandmother (Ma-ma-oo), Uncle Mick, and brother Jimmy has them appearing during times in her life. At first she think’s she is going insane and question’s whether she is dreaming or not, but towards the end of the novel begins coping with the fact that she has a gift.
– serena
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A Lost Cause 
Men. Breaking the Silence on Childhood Sexual Violence.
My name is Keith Smith. I was abducted, beaten and raped by a stranger. It wasn’t a neighbor, a coach, a relative, a family friend or teacher. It was a recidivist pedophile predator who spent time in prison for previous sex crimes; an animal hunting for victims in the quiet suburbs of Lincoln, Rhode Island.
I was able to identify the guy and the car he was driving. He was arrested and indicted but never went to trial. His trial never took place because he was brutally beaten to death in Providence before his court date. 34 years later, no one has ever been charged with the crime.
In the time between the night of my assault and the night he was murdered, I lived in fear. I was afraid he was still around town. Afraid he was looking for me. Afraid he would track me down and kill me. The fear didn’t go away when he was murdered. Although he was no longer a threat, the simple life and innocence of a 14-year-old boy was gone forever. Carefree childhood thoughts replaced with the unrelenting realization that my world wasn’t a safe place. My peace shattered by a horrific criminal act of sexual violence.
Over the past 34 years, I’ve been haunted by horrible, recurring memories of what he did to me. He visits me in my sleep. There have been dreams–nightmares actually–dozens of them, sweat inducing, yelling-in-my-sleep nightmares filled with images and emotions as real as they were when it actually happened. It doesn’t get easier over time. Long dead, he still visits me, silently sneaking up from out of nowhere when I least expect it. From the grave, he sits by my side on the couch every time the evening news reports a child abduction or sex crime. I don’t watch America’s Most Wanted or Law and Order SVU, because the stories are a catalyst, triggering long suppressed emotions, feelings, memories, fear and horror. Real life horror stories rip painful suppressed memories out from where they hide, from that recessed place in my brain that stores dark, dangerous, horrible memories. It happened when William Bonin confessed to abducting, raping and murdering 14 boys in California; when Jesse Timmendequas raped and murdered Megan Kanka in New Jersey; when Ben Ownby, missing for four days, and Shawn Hornbeck, missing for four years, were recovered in Missouri.
Despite what happened that night and the constant reminders that continue to haunt me years later, I wouldn’t change what happened. The animal that attacked me was a serial predator, a violent pedophile trolling my neighborhood in Lincoln, Rhode Island looking for young boys. He beat me, raped me, and I stayed alive. I lived to see him arrested, indicted and murdered. It might not have turned out this way if he had grabbed one of my friends or another kid from my neighborhood. Perhaps he’d still be alive. Perhaps there would be dozens of more victims and perhaps he would have progressed to the point of silencing his victims by murdering them.
Out of fear, shame and guilt, I’ve been silent for over three decades, sharing my story with very few people. No more. The silence has to end. What happened to me wasn’t my fault. The fear, the shame, the guilt have to go. It’s time to stop keeping this secret from the people closest to me, people I care about, people I love, my long-time friends and my family. It’s time to speak out to raise public awareness of male sexual assault, to let other survivors know that they’re not alone and to help survivors of rape and violent crime understand that the emotion, fear and memories that may still haunt them are not uncommon to those of us who have shared a similar experience.
My novel, Men in My Town, was inspired by these actual events. Men in My Town is available now at http://www.Amazon.com
For those who suffer in silence, I hope my story brings some comfort, strength, peace and hope.
For additional information, please visit the Men in My Town blog at http://www.meninmytown.wordpress.com