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One evening when our children were younger I found
myself riding herd at the counter of a fast food restaurant,
struggling to keep them going in roughly the same direction.
After placing our order, I put my hand on my 5-year-old
son’s shoulder to prod him along. He resisted. I grabbed his arm,
then glanced down to scold … a boy I had never seen before.
My son stood 10 feet away with my wife, both looking
puzzled. The mother of the child I had by the arm appeared ready to
mace me. I let go as if he were a snake and apologized profusely,
an offer that was accepted only after my wife vouched for me. As I
recall, the boy and his mother took a table on the opposite side of
the restaurant.
I didn’t blame them. It was a scary world in which to
be a parent, one that now seems more frightening after a series of
high-profile child abductions. My children today are 15 and 16, an
age parents once thought safe (from anything but themselves, at
least); with the kidnap of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart from her Utah
bedroom, it’s natural to feel less certain.
I was a kid not that long ago, by my reckoning, yet my
childhood was not darkened by fear of strangers. I knew not to go
with someone I didn’t know, but was walking the few blocks to school
by first grade and to my family’s bakery afterward for snacks. My
sister and I usually played in the backyard, occasionally moving to
the front while a parent kept watch from the window.
Family legend has it that my sister, whom I will not
identify for my own safety, stripped herself bare at age 2 and
toddled down the street to drop in on a few neighbors. One returned
her to our front door, squirming under one arm with her clothes
tucked beneath the other.
This was America; today it would be neglect. Child
kidnappings are certainly not new, and some speculate that what
we’re seeing is merely better reporting. Crimes that receive heavy
media coverage, like the abductions of young Elizabeth, and
7-year-old Danielle van Dam and 5-year-old Samantha Runnion in
California, can also give the impression that such acts are common.
In fact there are only
200 - 300
stranger abductions of
children in the United States each year. According to preliminary
FBI statistics for 2001, the total number of kidnappings has
actually dropped. This is no comfort to families that have lost
children, nor should the rest of us let down our guard.
The National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children reports that
most children abducted by strangers are molested,
killed, or both. Still,
such crimes are mercifully rare.
Much more common are sexual crimes against children not
involving abduction. These aren’t new either, but we now suffer
advocacy groups working to water down or repeal laws that protect
even the youngest kids.
They have allies in some public institutions. Earlier
this year the University of Minnesota Press published “Harmful to
Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex,” a book
condoning adult-child sex at almost any age and questioning whether
pedophilia even exists. In May, the United States Supreme Court
ruled unconstitutional
a law banning computer generated
child pornography, the fuel of many predators.
Law enforcement agencies knock themselves out searching
for abducted children and hunting those responsible while as many
officials as can hog a microphone cheer them on. Meanwhile, the
highest court in the land and other public institutions work
overtime to aid and comfort the perpetrators.
This is not simply a mixed message; it’s a tragedy. We
deserve better. We should demand it.
NOTE: The kidnappings of 7-year-old
Erica Pratt
of
Philadelphia and 6-year old
Cassandra Williamson of Valley Park, Missouri, occurred after
this column was released but before its print date in some papers.
Erica escaped safely; Cassandra was murdered almost immediately
after her abduction.
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