Last night I watched the Diane Sawyer interview with Jaycee Dugard. She is the girl who was kidnapped by a sex offender and held captive by him and his wife for 18 years. Watching this interview I felt myself going through a whole range of emotions.
Her story will break your heart, but her attitude and her outlook on life is an inspiration. How someone taken so young managed to come through this with such a positive attitude and a beautiful smile is beyond me. But she has.
What I felt a lot through this interview is anger. Anger at not only her abuser and his wife, but the system in general. You wonder how does a known, registered, on parole sex offender hide a young girl he has kidnapped in his back yard for so long? How does he father two children with her and she is forced to raise them in a tent in the back yard and no one notices?
The map showing where he had been when he had the ankle monitor made me wonder why someone didn’t check on what he was doing. The neighbor calling the police to report there were children living in the back yard and the policeman doesn’t even have the decency to make a walk through. When the report came in, didn’t it show this was the home of a sex offender?
Some people might say “Well they got a lot of money from the state of California!” But I say it doesn’t in any way make up for the horror she endured or the innocence lost.
We need to protect our children! Take an interest, open your eyes, don’t be afraid of offending someone. I’ve said if before and I’ll say it again – We have no idea what is going on in the homes we pass every day, some people don’t even know what is going on in their extended families homes. I am a very nosy person by nature, so I say be nosy! Ask questions, call law enforcement over and over if necessary. If a door is shut, open it up and look in. Open your eyes people!