Why I Rise - Part 30

In 1988, a 7-year-old boy was riding his bike near his Tacoma, Washington home when Earl Shriner, having just been released from prison having just served a sentence for killing a girl, lured the boy into a wooded lot and raped, stabbed, strangled and sexually mutilated the little boy.  The boy survived.  I worked closely with that boy's mother and a handful of victims of violent, sexual crime, (myself included,) to change the laws governing violent, sexual offenders in the State of Washington in 1989.  The omnibus bill that we orchestrated and passed became the model for the rest of the country, instituting community notification, the ability to continue to incarcerate dangerous offenders after serving their time and much longer sentences for sex crimes.

I was angry.  I was beginning to spiral, having memories of my own abuse surfacing.  I even attempted to end my life.  Creating a safe community is necessary and it isn't the answer to alter the course of society.  Why I rise is because anger is not my answer.  Anger may be cathartic, but it's more of the same, dressed in a different shade.  Anger propagates anger.  I rise up to reach out and cause love, cause peace, cause education.  I rise up to cause "We are our brother's keeper."  I rise up to cause a planet where anger, rape, sexism no longer exists.  I rise up to cause a new human race.