Friday, February 1, 2013

Why I Rise - 32


You asked why I rise?  I rise because I've worked in mental health in the field of treating sexual violence for almost 20 years now, and I've seen the havoc and devastation it's wreaked....on both sides.  I've gotten to see girls and women shattered by perhaps the ultimate invasion and betrayal, especially as most such violence comes from people they knew.  I know of depression, anxiety, flashbacks, substance abuse and suicide that followed after those kinds of abuses.  I also have seen men wrecked by the realization of what they had done.  Too many didn't understand just what they were doing before it was done.  It doesn't excuse the actions they took. It doesn't absolve the responsibility.  It does, however, beg the question where those ideas were spawned and learned.  Far too often, it came from others who promulgated that such violence is, in whatever twisted way, acceptable, the way things "should" be, the way they ARE.  For everyone's sake, that has to change.  It has to end.  Violence has never been a long-term antidote for violence.  It takes courage, conviction, compassion, dedication and faith.  So, to represent all those things, I choose to rise....I choose to STAND.
 - Anonymous
Salt Lake City, Utah

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