I've been convinced for years that if we as a country dedicated ourselves more to protecting the innocent than many many of the issues we face would resolve by themselves. I believe mental health, drug abuse, more sexual and physical abuse, more unproductive citizens, crime of all kinds and homelessness among many other issues would all decrease significantly by targeting offenders, empowering victims, educating the public and eliminating offender sourcing of white slavery and porn. Its astonishing how many of the individuals that most of us find difficult to deal with have been physically and sexually abused. Those acts can damage an entire family line for generations.

I would love to hear some presidential politician make this their main issue for their time of service. Protecting the innocent among us. Ending molestation, child porn and white slavery in any form. Open a whole US department led by a guy like Tim Ballard whose only mission is to target and eliminate these crimes with the help of individual state departments organized for the same purpose. Tell the public that once we clean our own house we are going after the rest of the world too and we would be surprised if any nation will not help us end these travesties. I'm not sure how it should be done or done right but bring the smack down against offenders in the court system and make penalties more harsh. Teach and inform the public about what to avoid and what to look for. Required education for parents etc. I'm conservative politically and against government involvement in most issues but this is one I could jump on board with and would happily pay more taxes for. Its an issue there is not going to be a comprehensive private sector fix for and one that goes beyond the power of any individual state.

As much as I think #metoo has gone a little too far there is no question that more women know their rights now and have confidence in speaking up. I would be very surprised if there is not a continual decrease in inappropriate sexual behavior in the work place and elsewhere. As a father of daughters and guy who has adult family members who have been abused this does not make me sad. It will take a generation of dealing with the pendulum swing in the extreme but in the end I think this #metoo movement will likely be a blessing to our society. That is the result of an issue which is often cloudy over whether it is consensual or non consensual. No one thinks such acts with a child are consensual and I think we can mostly all get behind a serious movement to flatten this scourge.