Thursday, February 14, 2014 is V-Day, aka One Billion Rising (http://onebillionrising.org). V-Day calls for people around the world to Rise, Strike, and Dance to end violence against women.
Today, the US Senate by an overwhelming majority, passed the comprehensive version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). We all can speak out. We all can rise and call for the end to this indifference. If you haven’t done so already, do so on February 14. You can find your Representatives phone number at http://www.house.gov/representatives/. Tell him/her to have a heart, have compassion, and help end the climate of indifference by passing and fully funding VAWA.
“If you think that rapes only happen at Notre Dame or in India or in Steubenville, you are wrong. A person is sexually assaulted in the United States every two minutes, and many of these are in small towns, including where you live. For every 100 rapes, only three lead to jail time for the rapist.”
I wrote this on January 23, 2013 in Nel’s New Day. Since then, the Portland (OR) chief of police, Mike Reece, has shown that his ignorance may promote the culture of rape in this Northwestern city. The media is forcing Reece to rethink his personnel decisions, but without the prevalence of newspaper articles about his indifference to—or ignorance about—what constitutes sexual contact, a demoted police officer might have continued to direct detectives who investigate sexual assault and human trafficking in this city of over 2 million people.
Reece’s problem went public last summer after…
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Civil Rights Advocacy 