Have you been falsely accused?

The odds are against you.

Every day 3000 people are falsely accused of child abuse, child neglect, failure to protect, spousal abuse, rape, or any of a host of other similar crimes. During the past 10 years over 22 million people have been falsely accused. The odds were that they would get around to you sooner or later.

Why me?

In case you haven't figured it out, there is plenty of federal money available to agencies who accuse you of child abuse, child neglect, failure to protect, spousal abuse, rape, or any of a host of other crimes The agencies don't have to actually prove, just reporting that you are "suspected" of these crimes is enough to start the federal money flowing. Theses federal programs pay the salaries of social workers, judges, prosecutors, and put benefit money in the pockets of private citizens who collaborate with the agencies.

There are dozens of "HOT LINES" anyone can call, at any time and, say that they saw you drag a little child into a public restroom. Actually, they can say anything the like because no one holds them to account for the truthfulness of their allegations. They don't have to identify themselves, and when it's over, so is your life. Your name goes on the Central Registry, and you are a known abuser for the rest of your life. What, don't believe me? Just type "ABUSE HOT LINES" into any Internet search engine, and see what happens. The problem is so bad that the US Army recently had to shut down one of it's hot lines because so many people were using it for revenge.

Once your name goes on the Central Registry, good luck getting it off. Almost no one ever gets their name removed. It only takes one call to ruin your life.

Most of us have overlooked the motivation behind what has happened to us, money. Without the federal money that comes form making false allegations against us, most of theses agencies would be out of business. How else are social workers, judges, prosecutors going to make their mortgage payments, VISA payments, and car payments. "Whenever someone says it's not the money, it's the money.

Now what?

You have been falsely accused, what are you going to do it; hire a lawyer? sign a petition? call your legislator? picket the courthouse? Will that work? Will that get your name cleared? Will that get your children back? What about all the money that this has cost you? Will they give you back your life, because you threaten to tell on them? Of course not. No one expects them to. Not really.

Many of us have been fighting this for years without results. Just solutions are rare, because, by ourselves, we have no political, or legal clout. Also, the state courts are crooked. You have to get the bad guys into a federal court (and the right federal court at that) to get a fair hearing, and you need political strength to force changes in the law. I wish that I could tell you that there are easy answers, but I can't.

Are you trying to fight this alone? Is it working. If any of us are going to win, we all have to work together. As things stand now, politicians, judges, lawyers, and the general public, have us pegged as "just a few crazy malcontents". We need to be organized to overcome this attitude. Just look at what the Sierra Club, the NRA, the National Organization of Women, and others do, and you will see what we've to do. Until we get it done, we will continue to suffer with no hope of relief.

Direct action

To many of us have spent tens of thousands of dollars paying local lawyers who usually don't accomplish anything. Others have worked to pass legislation at the state, and local level, only to find that the legislation they worked for either didn't pass, was not worth the effort in the first place, or was amended to actually work against us. For all the talking, all the conferences, white papers, and lobbying, what have we gained? Nothing, and in most cases we have lost ground.

The time for talk is over. People in positions of authority have not understood what we've been telling them, in part because they don't want to understand, and in part because our people have been saying it the wrong way. Politicians understand large, organized groups who are willing to vote them out of office, and bureaucrats understand large federal court judgments. It's time for to stop playing activist (or worse, patsy) and take direct action. Votes and judgments are the languages that we should be speaking.

Strength in numbers

The Sierra Club has about 400,000 dues paying members, the NRA, about 3 million (though they claim about 7 million). The National Organization of Women has a mere 100,000. While these numbers differ greatly, these organizations have one thing in common, they are organized, and they can prove it with their membership rolls. They all have a large body of people who think enough of their issue to pay dues, and work to gather for their common goal. We have the potential of numbers that would dwarf these groups. There is strength in numbers, they know it, we should know it.

There are 22 million of us who have been put through this living hell. If we only get 20% of them to join us, we would have the largest, organization, of it's type, in the world. We don't even need to get 4 and 1/2 million members to do the job, but you can see from this, how easy it would be to stop the tyranny. All we have to do is get a small portion of them to sign on, and we will have the power to see justice done.

Congressional elections are 16 months away. That's plenty of time for us to have a significant impact. Many people in congress know that there is a serious problem, but they won't do anything about it until they are forced to. As long as we keep doing things the way we have been, we aren't much of a force. However, if we show even a hint of ability to organize, it will be enough to get the attention of some of the people in congress.

What we don't have time for is more talk, more procrastination, or more waiting around to see what others are going to do. We all have to act, and act now.

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The Backlash! - January 1997