I found it both endearing and triggering, but I laughed out loud at the odd combination of pop-culture ( Osh Kosh B'Gosh), the grammar nazi, and steampunk clothing and machinery.
I almost cried when the children see in the letter that they are all they have. I know how it feels to be the only one looking out for your siblings and feeling like the ONLY one who really loves them and looks out for their futures.
But the parts that made me upset were the parallels to what is going on right now in 2014.
When Violet reminds her brother about their parents trip to Europe I was upset by the fact that not only would the parents not tell the children, but the "letter that got lost" sounds just like what rich, unattached parents would say as an excuse.
Go ahead and call me cynical. I have been hurt one too many times to trust very easily.
But the part that made the blogging fire blaze in my soul, was the ending, where the watching crowd gasps at "Count Olaf's" reveal of his plan and behavior, and the fact that he had just legally married the 14 year old to which he had been given custody.
"I'm the monster? You're the monster! These children tried to warn you, but you wouldn't listen. No one ever listens to children!"
Despite the children seeing through his outward veneer, and attempting to advise and warn the adults in their lives, they are consistently shut down and repeatedly ignored as the adult is manipulated by Count Olaf.
Much like HSLDA, Michael Farris, Karen Campbell, Heidi St. John, and Voddie Baucham have been grooming the adults in the homeschooling world, only a couple "Count Olafs" have been unveiled: namely Doug Phillips and his flagship Vision Forum, and Gothard with his IBLP banner.
Ignoring the parallels of a society where Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty can support and encourage child marriage and still be respected, these big fish in the homeschooling pond are consistently being taken in by predators, or are the predators themselves in disguise. When "children" (as some people keep calling us, despite our age) call out the problems that they see, the abuse, the misuse of power, the blatant evil in the waters, we are ignored and shut down.
Repeatedly.
How long will it take for the villain to finally feel so comfortable that his mask will slip and the "well meaning" banker and the buffoon of a detective realize that in all their time being #notyourhomeschoolpolice, they have only handed over the victims to their abusers again and again?!?
How long will it take before the voices of the children are listened to?
How long before the "well-meaning" leaders of the movement TAKE AN HONEST LOOK AT THEMSELVES and see that they are ACCOMPLICES to all the evil that has been going on, and to all the evil that WILL CONTINUE to happen.
EVIL
EVIL
EVIL
I dont know how many times I have to say it before they hear me.
I dont know how long it will take for something to change
I dont know what else to do in a community that is already distrusted and cast-out.
But we are family, homeschool survivors. We will always have eachother, we will always know the truth and know that we did not stand idly by and be accomplices ourselves.
As Lemony Snicket says:
And they are the sort of people who know that there's always something. Something to invent, something to read, something to bite, and something to do, to make a sanctuary, no matter how small.
I am no inventor. I may only be able to bite at the heels of these big fish, and babble my go-go's and ga-ga's at them.... but I promise to bite as hard as I can to make a sanctuary for all of us.
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