By: Giovanni Ortiz & Randall Waszynski
For over 20 years, Kevin DeBlasi, a milkman, a teacher, an author and an attorney, has been fighting to change legislation on child abuse in support of his brother who was molested as a kid.
For the 2016 election, he convinced at least 40 of his 200 Suffolk County customers to donate money toward Democratic candidate Peter Magistrale’s campaign for New York State Senate. If elected Magistrale’s flagship proposal, the Child Victims Act, might bring DeBlasi’s goal closer to realization: It would allow child victims to litigate after their 23rd birthday.
“I think involvement in civic engagement is very important,” Page Keating, a Junior Ambassador of the Vote Everywhere Program, said. “We have the privilege to have rights as United States citizens, to have a say in our communities and improve them. Your involvement can dictate anything from your library to your public universities, and even more.”
Across Long Island people are getting involved in politics in many ways, especially now that elections, both local and national, are coming up. People use their communities and their social media, Timothy Macafee, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in political involvement, said.
“Most people have thoughts on politics,” Macafee added. “We have an opportunity to share them in a way that’s less threatening.” He said that people engage in politics just by sharing and reposting another type of news media.
Like DeBlasi, activists and local politicians alike depend on their communities to come together on a common cause.
“If we don’t allow the one-year window, we’re going to have another 20 years of pedophiles operating scot-free,” Kevin DeBlasi, who also owns the Milky Whey Calfeteria, said.
The one-year window, in reference to the current statute of limitations, allows those whose claims have been previously denied or refuted by the law to be re-examined, according to the NY Child Victims Act website. DeBlasi’s brother, Joe DeBlasi, was sexually abused as a child by his step-mother, which is Kevin DeBlasi’s rationale for justice.
Political engagement has been translated into community leadership. Even students are active in their local politics.
“So many trauma circumstances that children experience, with abuse being, obviously, at the top, there’s lingering health and mental health issues for victims through their whole life,” Diana Filiano, the director of the Child Welfare Training Program at Stony Brook University. “The efforts for the Child Victims Act is not only to enable there to be justice there for these victims, it’s also a tool to assist them in their own health and recovery. So it’s a judicial system for justice, but it’s also for them,” she said.
DeBlasi urges Long Islanders to show support by attending the Protect Children Rally he is spearheading at Moriches Park in St. James on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 1 p.m.
Randall Waszynski 