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	Pol’s ‘sending a Message to Many Survivors’ By Margery Eagan Boston Herald February 17, 2011 http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/2011_0217pols_sending_a_message_to_many_survivors/ U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is a political golden boy. Handsome, charming. Star power daughters and wife. Much to critics’ surprise, he’s hit almost all the right notes in Washington. He seems unflappable, reasonable, able to take the inevitable nasty hits. He appears, in short, to be everything our stereotype of a child abuse survivor is not. And yet Brown’s story of abuse mirrors the stories we’ve heard from scores of sexual abuse survivors right here in Boston — survivors many of us vilified, doubted and second-guessed. Yesterday, when news broke of the sexual abuse Brown, at age 10, suffered at the hands of a camp counselor, he became a hero to many survivors and to a local attorney who’s represented hundreds of them — only to be vilified himself. Brown said he never went to police or any authority. He said he never told anyone, even his mother. He recalled how his abuser threatened him: “If you tell anybody, you know, I’ll kill you. I will make sure that no one believes you.” Said Brown, “When people find people like me at that young vulnerable age, who are basically lost, the thing that they have over you is, they make you believe that no one will believe you.” Isn’t that exactly what adults abused by priests as children have said 10, 20, 30 years after the crime — only to be attacked. If it’s true, too many of us said, why did they wait to tell? Brown waited 42 years. Few will be attacking him. Christine Hickey, who was abused by Father James Porter, said yesterday that few people “understand that it takes some victims decades to come forward, if at all. (Brown) talked about embarrassment and confusion and shed new light for those who like to blame victims. “He’ll do a world of good, and the fact that he’s a conservative is helpful.” Skip Shea, who was abused by Father Thomas Teczar, called Brown’s revelations “a sign of hope for people who don’t know that there’s a choice, that with lots of help you can heal and move on.” Shea said he’s heard over and over that “the rape of a child is the murder of a soul.” But Brown — a come-from-nowhere national star — belies that destructive and untrue claim. Mitchell Garabedien is a Boston lawyer who’s spent a career representing abuse survivors — some successful businessmen, doctors and lawyers who never want their secret known. Beloved by clients, he has nonetheless faced brutal criticism from doubters. Yesterday he commended Brown “for having the strength to come forward. “I hope he’s lifted a great weight off his shoulders, Garabedien said. “He’s sending a message to many survivors that sexual abuse should not and may not prevent you from succeeding in life. It should not prevent you from achieving your dreams.”
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