Vicki Polin Speaks at the 2006 SNAP Conference

I wanted to thank Barbara Blaine, David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris and everyone else at SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest) for inviting me to speak at their conference yesterday (Sunday, July 23, 2006).  This years conference was held in Jersey City, NJ.  

I was totally amazing to speak to a crowd of over 200 survivors and supporters in one room.  During my presentation I basically spoke about the fact that sexual abuse has absolutely nothing to do with religion and that it's all about power and control. I shared with them some unscientific statistics compiled by one of The Awareness Center's volunteers, who compared the number of Catholics in the US to the number of cases of clergy abuse in Catholic community, to the number of Jews in the US to the number of cases of clergy abuse we have. The statistics came out almost exactly the same.  It appears that 2% of all clergy no matter what faith they come from molest children.

During my presentation I kept reminding the audience that "pedophillia has NO religion," and that it "takes a village to raise a sex offender." Another words we are all responsible for their actions and that we all NEED to be mandated to report when we SUSPECT a child is being abused and or neglected.
 

With all the hate that has been aimed at me over the years since starting The Awareness Center, I was totally shocked when my presentation was over -- just about everyone in the room stood up and applaud.

Can you imagine if I gave that same presentation at a yeshiva or in any Torah observant community? 

How many conference participants would have stayed in the workshop, let alone give me a standing ovation?