It has been two months since I last posted here – a busy two months.
It was an unusually busy summer in my job as managing editor of my local newspaper, between summer sports, county fairs and local community celebrations – not to mention family visits and a much-needed vacation – and it was a good opportunity for me to reflect on what I want to do here and in the future as a public speaker and advocate for those who are fellow survivors of sexual assault.
At some point in everybody’s life, they feel a need to make some kind of major change in their lives. For some, it’s a family-related situation like marriage or divorce. Others have grown tired of being overweight and make the effort to change their eating and activity behaviors to drop the extra weight.
For me, it is beginning the transition from a 30-year career as a small-town journalist to that of a full-time public speaker. My goal is – sometime between my 50th birthday (less than three years from now) and my 52nd, I will be speaking out on a full-time basis while giving myself the freedom to continue on a much smaller scale as a freelance writer and photographer.
I feel like I’m being called by a higher power to make this change in my life, because my personal struggle with life as a survivor of sexual assault is one that must be shared with the world. The message that there is life beyond the attack must get out, and while my situation certainly is not unique, it is one that can be used to help inspire others who are living through the same hell I found myself in.
Already (if you’ve checked out the calendar of events on the home page), I’ve lined up some public speaking events near my home town, and am in negotiations to do several more engagements in my home state of Nebraska in the weeks and months ahead. I don’t want to limit myself to one little corner of the world, though – I look forward to crossing the state’s borders and going across the country to spread the message for fellow survivors who are looking for hope, to let them know that there IS hope for them to go on and live life as a SURVIVOR of sexual assault.
I have been inspired by the work of people like Erin Merryn, a young woman in Illinois who not only has told her story, but used it to help influence legislation that is spreading nationwide. I want to bring Erin’s Law to my home state of Nebraska, and I want to do more to make sure those who sexually assault our children are put away in prison for a much longer period than they are now. I also want to work to get the message to judges who fail to dispense the proper judgement due to those who assault our children that their ignorance of this crime can no longer stand.
There is much work to do, and as things move forward I will continue updating you here. I will also post more news that I see on the web regarding stories relating to child sexual assault, and hope that you will spread the word about the Tell (Some, Any, Every) One website and the battle against child sexual assault.
I promise – it won’t be two months until the next time you hear from me here. In the meantime, e-mail me at mike@mikeycproductions.com if you’d like to have me speak to your school, library or community. I can pass information along about my story and what it will take to get me to your community, and I look forward to the opportunity to help others in this ongoing battle.
Until next time…as my dad always says – straight ahead.

Mike

P.S. – If you have not yet read my book, “Call Me A Survivor,” you can order it here at Amazon.com.