With his debut single climbing the charts, Jason Michael Carroll’s song seems timely with the finding of abducted child, Shawn Hornbeck.

While Shawn was found alive, so many victims of child abuse or abduction aren’t and this song could be the national anthem and calling to arms for everyone that even suspects a child is being abused.

There was some hesitation on Jason’s part to recording Alyssa Lies, he was afraid it was “too dark” to get airplay on the radio. But contrary to that train of thought it seems to have touched a chord in the country music listening audience. Everyone I have talked to has said it is hard to hear this song and not tear up or think that they would have done something different to help a child in distress.

As of 2004, it was reported that an estimated 874,000 children were abused in the United States according the reports from National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect at www.ndacan.cornell.edu. It is said that approximately 11 out of every 1000 children are victims of abuse be that neglect, physical or mental abuse.

If this song can help an adult or caregiver to report a child being abused and save that childs life, then it is a song that I believe should be honored. There are other songs out there that have made people stop and think, some about child abuse, such as Martina McBride's Concrete Angel (thank you to my readers for pointing out the omission of this song), some about spousal abuse, such as Martina McBride’s Independence Day and Garth Brooks’ When the Thunder Rolls. The difference with those topics is that the ones being abused are adults, but there is an underlying understanding that children are in the home.

Children need the adults in their lives to step up and say enough, to get them out of the situation that they have no control over and can’t stop. Children of abuse have been programmed not to say anything, they usually are ashamed or have been threatened to never say anything.