When You Change the Rules, You Change the Game by Andrew Vachss :: National Association to PROTECT Children :: Pro-Child

More than any other person, Andrew Vachss could rightfully be called the father of the Circle of Trust campaign. Vachss is an attorney who represents only abused and neglected children. He is also a highly successful author whose novels have been called "Trojan horses" for his messages about the abuse and protection of children. In 1998, Vachss wrote an influential cover story for Parade magazine, "Our Endangered Species," in which he took on America's failure to protect children with a short essay entitled, Why it takes a whole village to rape a child. "Simply put, we as a nation consider children to be the property of their parents," wrote Vachss, in one of the largest-circulation magazines in the world. "And we provide a special immunity to sex offenders who grow their own victims." Vachss' article sparked federal legislation called the CARE Act of 1999, aimed at pushing all states to close these incest loopholes. When the federal bill failed, PROTECT picked up the fight and began changing laws state by state. In a nation where the mass media is almost obsessively focused on rare cases of stranger abduction, Vachss' repeated calls for protecting children in their own homes have resulted in fundamental civil and human rights for future generations of children. His readers—who include some of the most respected fighters for children in America today—also formed a major, highly-effective segment of the California Circle of Trust campaign.

But the most important lesson is this: we have always believed that Americans would do the right thing if only they were given the opportunity. Until the passage of this new law, California had a special deal for degenerates: grow your own victims and, instead of prison, we'll give you probation. And, as an additional bonus, we'll throw in some "family treatment." Not only will this force your victims to keep "interacting" with you—after all, incest isn't really a crime; it's just "family dysfunction"—it will line the pockets of those who sell snake oil and support certain politicians with some of the profits.

The people of California never would have voted for such a filthy piece of legislative kiddie porn, but it was never presented to them. That dirty deal was made behind closed doors, in the "committees" nobody ever watches and the press largely ignores. We always believed if we could get true child protective laws out of the committees and onto the floor of the legislature, politicians would vote the right way. Because, now, the people would be watching. Imagine this proposition on a public referendum:

We all know what the result would have been. But there never was such a referendum—most people never even knew there was such a law. To change it, PROTECT, in collaboration and comradeship with an incredibly diverse and deeply devoted crew of warriors, took on the Boss—and that's the right word for her—of the Appropriations Committee. And, despite her inexplicable personal affection for a law which treated incest offenders better than petty thieves, our combined strength was enough to change the rules. When you change the rules, you change the game. And when you change the game, you change the outcome.

Once our new law was out of committee, once it got to the floor of the Senate and the Assembly, it passed without a single dissenting vote. As we knew it would.

California's children are safer today, thanks to a great many folks who went the distance and gave this fight their all.

What does that mean? It means that PROTECT is on the march. The Train of Change is coming, with more getting on board every day.

Every politician in American claims to be a child protector. We never believed we could reform professional liars. But, unlike the politicians, we had faith in the people. We dreamed of change.