The Silence of Justice

When people think of the word "atrocities" they think of events like Tiananmen Square, Rwanda, and 9/11. No one would argue otherwise. However, it's important to note that not all atrocities are world-impacting and in the history books. Some happen on a much smaller scale, but for those involved, they become their whole world. Atrocities like domestic violence and sexual abuse. Atrocities like domestic violence and sexual abuse. Like parricide, matricide, patricide, filicide.

For most people, reading those words would be enough to make their eyes twitch, raise their blood pressure or just feel something. Anything. For the majority of the perpetrators, though, the reaction to their actions is different. Even if they react, it isn’t with regret or remorse. Often the exact opposite. They enjoy it. Enjoy inflicting pain, exerting control over those who have placed their trust in their hands.

How would you react if you witnessed something you were never meant to see? Someone raising a fist, using their body to dominate a spouse, a partner—maybe even their children—to elicit dread and fear. To make them suffer.

If you saw the lust in their eyes, would you act? Would you simply ignore it and look the other way? Not your business, is it? Would you call the police or tell yourself, 'Don't get involved'?

Easy to say you'd take a stand in the comfort of daylight, don’t you think? Easy to think you'd be the hero when someone in distress needed it. It's a great fantasy and not one that is unhealthy. However, you might not be able to be the big hero you want to be. You might not have the courage needed.

It’s not as easy to stand up and be counted in opposition to the ills and sins of the worst of this world. It should be, but it’s not. Why do you think so many crimes go unpunished? So many left unsolved, unpursued? Not enough people are willing to stand up and be counted - that’s why.

In a world where the evil and wicked seem to prosper, while the good and those trying to be decent falter, it’s hard to go against the grain. Hard to rock the boat, to defy the status quo, to say, 'No more.'

Perhaps you remember a time when things were a lot simpler. When you could say to your mother or father “a kid is bullying me at school” or “I don’t want to be alive on this planet anymore, mommy and daddy, because there is too much badness, too much sadness and suffering,” and they would ease your pains and remind you of all that was good in the world.

There is good in the world—people willing to stand up, to share uncomfortable truths.

Truths About you.

About you and your wicked and depraved ways. About you and your selfish acts of deplorable deviance and disgusting desires.

There are people who will not be silenced. Even if you kill them.