Dear Editor: The Sound of Freedom

Dear Editor,

I wasn't planning to go see The Sound of Freedom; in fact, I was planning not to, but a friend asked me to watch it with her, so I decided to give it a whirl. I wasn't too disappointed; in fact, I was almost pleasantly surprised given the subject matter. The Sound of Freedom was heart wrenchingly honest about the deplorable issue of child sex trafficking; deplorable doesn't really even begin to describe the horrors of it! As uncomfortable as the subject matter is, it is there, clamoring for our attention, much as we're used to our children clamoring for our attention when we're busy with something else.

Here in rural Montana, specifically our relatively quiet and peaceful bedroom community of Whitehall, it's tempting to think "Well, sure, in the big cities like Billings and Denver, not to mention the gargantuan cities back East, possibly even Boze Angeles or Butte, but surely not HERE!" Yes, sadly even here.

You might not hear much about it, except for the occasional and annoying Amber alert rudely interrupting whatever we were doing. Or the Facebook news story one of our friends feels compelled to repost about the latest case of a Native child, usually female, having gone missing. The sad truth is this should be a major concern for ANY parent. Think about it; our quiet, peaceful little town is perfectly positioned on the I-90 corridor, and just over the hill from I-15, one of the major North/South routes. According to the special message at the end The Sound of Freedom, our great nation is the #1 consumer of child sex trafficking.

Enough about fear. In the movie, the hero decided that it wasn't enough to just go after the perpetrators, he felt like he needed to start rescuing the children too. One can't blame him for this emotionally based decision; what parent out there wouldn't do whatever it took to bring their child home, or to prevent them from being taken in the first place?!

Usually, this translates to fighting fire with fire. It is very difficult to argue in this case that violence is not the answer! One might wonder how you could hope to prevent your child from being snatched, if not by returning evil for evil, and the simple answer is, take greater care of your children! Monitor their electronics closely, if you even allow them access to the internet. There are myriad ways in which we can approach this problem without resorting to the same kind of violence.

Related to the same issue is that of child abuse. This too is a very uncomfortable subject, but just because we've swept it under the rug for generations does not mean it doesn't exist. Even though our childhood trauma may be in the past, even though we've moved on (whatever that looks like to us), if we haven't started the healing journey, the pain we've accrued over time will transfer right over to our children!

This wound MUST be healed! The reason, most often, that we gloss over these wounds is that to heal our wounds means to revisit them. Talk about uncomfortable! Not only must we revisit them but often our wounds must be reopened. Ouch! However, to prevent the transference of these wounds and their causes to our children, this is something we MUST do for ourselves.

After watching such an emotionally charged movie (which was purposely and skillfully done, by the way), one might ask, What can WE do to stop this horrific nonsense?! Something MUST be done! That's right; something must be done and it starts with US!

What can WE do? you ask. Start with YOURSELF! Most people have some sort of childhood trauma to heal from. Start your OWN healing journey without delay so that you don't transfer it to the next generation. If you don't know how seek help; it doesn't have to be professional, though there are more than a few options available on that account. As long as one is willing to do the work, one can heal oneself; in fact of the matter, ONLY YOU CAN HEAL YOU!

With all that said, once we have begun to heal the generational curse within our own family tree, then and ONLY then will we be able to have ANY lasting impact on the issue at hand! Till we have said the buck stops here! and healed from our own generational trauma; violence is truly the ONLY answer we can offer!

Wound upon wound, abuse upon abuse will fester till one day it will implode, leaving a very grim legacy for those might who come after!

The buck stops here - let's heal our world!

Charles Haddon Shank

Whitehall, Montana