Peter Walsh, the acting director of the Maine Department of Human Services, wants to change the way the state fights child abuse.

Abuse is dealt with on a case-by-case basis, the problem has become endemic and Walsh and other experts who met last week to work on a different approach to the problem say a culture change is needed.

The number of child abuse complaints has increased during the last two decades. DHS receives more than 9,000 referrals a year and about 2,000 of those cases are substantiated.

To attack the problem, DHS is trying to adapt lessons learned in the fight against drunken driving and smoking.

“Would you have believed 10 or 15 years ago that we would stop smoking in bars?” Walsh asked last week. The cultural norms changed, he said, because anti-smoking advocates became proactive and formed a statewide campaign to educate and inform residents.

Speakers at a July 30 forum in Augusta proposed a similar strategy for addressing child abuse.

Complaints are common against DHS, especially when it comes to child abuse. The department is accused of intervening too early and breaking up families that just need a little help, or intervening too late after a child already has suffered at the hands of an adult. Failure is very public; success is often very private.

We all have a role in reducing child abuse. But we need to learn what to do.

There are ways for all of us to defuse potential abuse and lend a hand to a parent on the edge. A kind, calming word during a supermarket tirade or something as simple as an offer to help can make a difference.

DHS also has to work on its image. Fear of the system supported by horror stories deter many well-meaning parents from seeking out the help they need. If a family lives in a neighborhood where a child has been removed, it’s difficult to overcome a feeling that seeking help might cause even more trouble.

There’s no shame in asking for help. The shame comes from abusing a child.


Do not disturb


Two Corsairs, piloted by Royal Navy flyers, crashed into Sebago lake in the spring of 1944. A salvage company is hoping to cash in by dredging up the past, literally.

The motivation: “Return the salvaged portions of the Aircraft to the stream of commerce from which they were lost.” In other words, the company wants the cash the planes might generate. The two Corsairs could be worth up to $1 million each, while a more realistic price tag is about $300,000 for the recovered aircraft.

Pilots Vaughan Reginald Gill and Raymond Laurence Knott died while training to fly fighters during World War II. Their remains have not been recovered and probably rest with their sunken airplanes.

The British Ministry of Defense and the United States Navy, along with the Maine State Museum, oppose the salvage operation. So do we.

A federal judge will decide if the planes can be yanked from their watery resting places by a barge and nylon ropes.

Two men died serving their country. Their remains rest at the bottom of Sebago Lake. Their service should not be forgotten; their graves should not be disturbed.

Let them rest in peace.


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