Falsely Accused

By Laura Knight-Jadczyk

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Have you ever, as a child, been accused of something you didn’t do, either by your parents, teachers or other “authorities?” And if so, were you punished unfairly for something you didn’t do? Do you remember how it felt? As you remember, can you feel the frustration, the helpless anger and resentment that you told the truth and no one believed you? YOU know what you did or did not do, and no one can take that away from you. But they have taken away from you the right for that truth to be known by others. And someone else has taken away THEIR right to know the truth. You have been slandered and punished, and there is NO WAY you can ever prove that it was wrong and unjust, and all the other people will have a “history” of you that is false. In fact, this knowledge that others will have false memories of you, will have false ideas about what you did until they die, hurts almost worse than the punishment. What is more, in a vague way, you can perceive that those who believe the lie have been deprived of something valuable about you: the truth that you did not do what you were accused of doing, and that you did tell the truth. A barrier has been erected between you and the others—the barrier of a lie.