Fighting Back was inspired by the journey that our daughter/sister has been forced to embark on. A journey that we as her family are making with her.
Our daughter/sister had just arrived at her first week-end of college….so excited for the future and what all it had to offer her. She was asked to go to a party with some new friends….she was introduced to many people….her rapist being one of them. She starting feeling ill and asked a friend to drive her home…..she passed out with no memory of the car ride. She awoke unable to move… to discover to her horror that she was being assaulted and raped. She didn’t know where she was at or how she had gotten there or who this man was but… she was in a nightmare!!! She heard loud voices at the door and thought someone was coming to help her…she was so wrong….it was his friends wanting to get in….banging and banging... This only seemed to fuel his rage. Finally a lone young man came to her aide and helped her get away. But the crime had already been committed.
This heinous crime is being played out every hour of every day in our country. Yet we tend to remain silent……..People don’t want to hear about these crimes….”it would never happen to me”……but it does. It happens to mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, friends and girlfriends. We have to start Fighting Back! We must break the silence associated with this crime and educate people so that these women can remain strong and get the help so desperately needed to prosecute these men.
A rapist rips from his victim their dignity, their trust, their hopes and their dreams…..he shatters their laughter and steals the light from their eyes. We must help give them back their dignity and trust by having a legal system that puts these rapists behind bars. We must give them back their hopes and dreams by showing them that we stand beside them in this fight. We have to give them the love and support they need to restore the light in their eyes and the ability to know that they are not alone in this. They are truly SURVIVORS!!!!
It is time for us all to start FIGHTING BACK!!!!!
"
