It’s Time We Stood Together – Its Time To Eliminate SOL Laws

October 12, 2013 by Together We Heal 17 Comments

My friend and colleague, Marjorie McKinnon, director of The Lamplighters, posted this saying and I believe it sums up everything we should do as organizations working toward the same goal – “We must all stand together, so that no one must stand alone.”

I’ve been speaking with Marci A. Hamilton, because I was thinking of forming a 501(c)(4) in order to work more in the area of changing/reforming statute of limitation laws that dealt with sex crimes against children. But since, as a 501(c)(3) we are allowed to use up to 20% of our time/resources to work in this area, she brought up a great point and I wanted to share it with you. Before I do, you should know why I called Marci.

She is a nationally recognized professor, religion/state scholar, and a leading attorney in major clergy sex abuse cases. She is the leading national expert on child sex abuse statutes of limitations, and maintains the cutting edge website, http://www.sol-reform.com, which contains up-to-date information on this vital social movement in all 50 states. She is frequently asked to advise Congress and state legislatures on the constitutionality of pending legislation and to consult in cases involving important constitutional issues. Professor Hamilton is the author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge University Press 2008, 2012) and God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge University Press 2005, 2007), which won the Silver Medal, Foreword Magazine Political Science Book of the Year Award, Political Science in 2005 and she is a visiting professor at Princeton University, New York University School of Law, Emory University School of Law, and the Princeton Theological Seminary.

She suggested, rather than starting over, why not pool our resources and work together with other groups already established to change the laws. So with that in mind I’m reaching out to everyone. Join with us to eliminate SOL laws that protect pedophiles/sexual predators and impede justice for survivors of CSA.

Rather than working alone and at times even against the grain, I believe we, and all survivors would be better served by this combination of resources. I’m so tired of a few organizations being more worried about “eyeballs on websites” and who gets what donor money. Isn’t this supposed to be about our fellow survivors of CSA? If so, if you really believe this, then email me and Marci so we can add your name and organization to the list and website of those already working together and lets get this done!

I am going to send some direct emails to those of you I believe will be on board but I also wanted to get this out there for everyone. Please join us in changing these outdated laws that protect the criminals and re-victimize those who’ve already suffered.

Let me say this again, if you really believe as we do, then step up and join us in this fight. This is an area we can make meaningful change, long-term, in the lives of survivors past, present and future. For those in the past, like myself, it shows our efforts and what we been through won’t be in vain. And for those present and future…the results will be self-evident.

We need your company name, logo, primary contact name and email address.

To see what is happening on SOL reform, visit Prof. Hamilton’s website
http://www.sol-reform.com. It is regularly updated.

Email either of us at:

David Pittman – togetherweheal@ymail.com
Marci A. Hamilton – hamilton02@aol.com

If not for yourself, then do this for those now and in the future.

Author: Together We Heal

In 2006 David took the first step in a long and painful journey back from the abyss of addiction and self-destruction. He promised his dying father that he would get clean. And he did. But as he cleaned his body and soul, he began to confront the sexual abuse that his addiction had for so long obscured — abuse perpetrated by a church youth minister when David was 12 to 15 years old. Those three years of abuse destroyed the foundation of love and faith that had been built by his family. For 25 years, David kept the abuse secret and lost himself in a fog of drugs and alcohol. He was by turns destitute, at times incarcerated. The promise to his dying father was the catalyst. And the bedrock of his mother’s love and devotion was the foundation on which David rebuilt his life. Therapy, 12-step meetings, and soul-deep determination were the bricks and mortar. David founded Together We Heal to provide fellow survivors and their families, guidance through the trauma of childhood sexual abuse. In 2015 he was asked to become a part of the Child Safeguarding Initiative team with GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to empower the Christian community through education and training to recognize, prevent, and respond to child abuse. David represents Together We Heal & GRACE across the country as a public speaker and instructor; teaching churches, schools, and families how to talk with their kids about sexual abuse, how to better identify predatory behavior, and how to properly respond to those harmed. "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” - Dr. Seuss