Between the ages of 11 and 15 I had been sexually touched by adult men on 5 separate occasions.  These men, chronologically were a Doctor (age 11), Preacher (age 12), Preacher again (age 13), a Street Vendor (age 13) and a group of Indians (age 15).  As I am typing this, I am shaking and thinking of that old childhood rhyme..."Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief, Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief".  I have learned to despise this rhyme.

This diary was inspired by tonyahky's excellent diary of a girl she knew as a child named Annie.  The diary is called "At age 13, She was Ruined".  If you haven't read it, please do so.  In this diary I expiate some personal demons from my own childhood, and exhort members of this community to speak up about their own ugly childhood experiences.  It wasn't until yesterday at the age of 49, that I realized how much poisonous shame I had been lugging around from childhood experiences for which I bore ZERO responsibility and how those experiences, so warped & twisted my spirit & psyche, my very sense of self in the years that followed.  I feel very free today.  Free and inspired to ask of this community, "What then must we do?"  What must we do to help young women/children of both genders, honor themselves avoid predators, and blossom into healthy adults who respect their place in this world?  More beneath the fold.