very sad for her and I am glad she seems to be at a place of peace

The time for action may not have come and gone.

Our office had a case where a girl who was sexually abused as a child came forward many years later (as a young adult) and the State successfuly prosecuted it. It's difficult but not impossible.

That said, I'm glad she's speaking out about it, and glad she is at peace.

What a shame. Unfortunately, I know a few people who were abused as children; even family members. My own mother's life was destroyed before it barely started. It's wonderful that Dana could get past it and soar above and beyond it.

It is great that she's speaking out about it as too many of these cases go unreported, and, in some parts of the world, marginalized by local officials and law enforcement officers.

On a related note, I wonder if everyone is aware of the Silence is the Enemy campaign? The campaign is comprised of a coalition of bloggers (many from ScienceBlogs--science is awesome!) who are contributing all their June revenues to Doctors Without Borders (doctorswithoutborders.org)--an organization that, among many other fine things, cares for victims of childhood rape, not just in Liberia, but in Sudan, Sri Lanka, Brazil, all around the world.

The movement was sparked by an article by New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof reporting on the mass rapes of post-civil-war Liberia (http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-10-list-13-badass-greens/). A disturbing amount of which are children under the age of 12. In Liberia after the end of the war, according to Kristof, "One major survey found that 75 percent of women had been raped."

A list of blogs (non-comprehensive as there are over 100 blogs around the world now participating) can be found at The Intersection blog via Discover Magazine:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/blogger-coalition/

A facebook group has also been created in support of this initiative:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?success=1&customize&gid=88260307...

No donations are necessary to support this cause (though that would certainly be nifty), but those interested in helping out can simply visit the participating blogs, enthusiastically and often. Many of the participating blogs offer witty, fascinating content of multitudinous variety. All revenue, including page view and click revenue of participating blogs for the month of June will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

So sad and really scary to think about