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A Street Corner Crusade : 
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HELP ME TO STOP THIS, he says to himself. Most people take him in at a glance and let him go; he's been at this for several months and is a fairly common sight around Eugene and Springfield by now. Occasionally a passing motorist will honk or wave or give him a thumbs up, but a few people yell or flip the middle finger. Sometimes rowdy teens will circle the block just so the Child Abuse Man can see them piled in the back seat, pretending to hit each other and laughing like crazy. "This is not a joke," the Child Abuse Man says. Sometimes, when cars are stopped at the traffic light, the Child Abuse Man approaches drivers and hands them one of his leaflets. Everything on the leaflet is typed in capital letters. I WAS ABUSE WITH MY TWIN SISTER FOR 20 YEARS. OLDER BROTHER AND SISTER WAS NOT ABUSE. I WAS SAT ON HOT STOVE, EAT MY OWN STOOL, EAT MY OWN VOMIT, TIED UP AND BEATEN WITH A STICK AND BELT, ENEMA TREATMENT GIVEN IN AN AWKWARD WAY, BEATEN ON THE HEAD WITH A STICK, STAND IN CORNER FOR LONG HOURS, EAT MANY BARS OF SOAP AND BLACK POWDER, DRINK LIQUID SOAP, STAND IN SNOW WITHOUT SHOES. I CAN GO ON AND ON. He talks rapidly in a curiously flat voice, sounding at times like Raymond, the Dustin Hoffman character in the movie "Rain Man." Beads of sweat pop to life on his forehead, up near a scar only practically hidden by his receding black hair. Hours on street corners with his cardboard sign have left his skin a deep brown - an August tan at the first to June. He wears clip-on sun glasses over his thick prescription glasses. The earphones on top of his head are plugged into a Sony Walkman tape player tucked into his pants. The Child Abuse Man mainly listens to religious tapes. He's short, maybe 5-feet-6, and stocky. He's 43. He says he's a slow learner. He was placed in a special education program during grade school and was 21 by the time he graduated from high school. His name is Paul McLaughlin. He's the Child Abuse Man, and he's begging for help. HELP STOP CHILD ABUSE, his sign says. "In my mind it will never go away," he says. |