Being a Voice for the Voiceless

A personal essay by Talley Timms

“The human voice is the most perfect instrument of all” –Arvo Pärt

Last year, in preparation for an internship, I read a victim’s statement given by a ten-year-old girl who witnessed an argument between her father and stepmom escalate to the point of violence, ending in her father headbutting her stepmom and breaking her nose. What surprised me first about this victim’s statement was how careful the child was to protect her father, making excuses and minimizing the trauma, even though he clearly put her in a high-risk situation. What surprised me more was the obvious shame this child felt for events over which she had no control. But what surprised me most was how little I remembered of this witness statement considering that I was that ten-year-old girl.

Two Strangers

A personal essay by Alison Linnell

From birth, we drill into our children the concept of Stranger Danger, but what happens when we become that stranger.

“Can’t we be friends?” My hope in asking was to be something more than contentious relatives, strangers.

“We’re not friends, mom. A friend is someone I want to hang out with.” He was irritated by my asking, repeatedly, to meet his new girlfriend. I knew that. I had failed in accepting his friends in the past, and he believed the outcome this time would be no different, so he kept his life – his friends, his feelings, his future – at a distance.

It is hard to pinpoint the moment one’s child becomes a stranger. He possibly would name a specific instance; I could think of several.