Cornered

​"Cornered" - mixed media on paper, 19" x 17.5".  Available here and at Artfinder.

Oh sweet petunia.

I didn't expect this little one to appear in the corner of a room.  Sitting on the floor, all by herself.  Voiceless.  But she doesn't have to be.  I can give her a voice.

This week, the news is filled with a woman brave enough to use her voice regarding a sexual assault.  I am watching  the world respond, waiting for a groundswell of support and a united determination to address the issue.  

​Why don't more women speak out when sexual assaults occur?  Exactly because of what is happening to Christine Blasey Ford.

So how can I support her?  By adding my voice to hers and speaking out, knowing it won't change the past and won't heal my pain, but might, just maybe, give courage to others.

I am also a victim of sexual assault.  It was decades ago when I was still a youngster.   At the time, I believed it was my fault.  Because I was surely a bad person, because I didn't deserve to be respected.  And I believed that no one would believe me because I was a child.

In later years I wondered how many others were subsequently assaulted by my attacker, and whether my voice would have stopped him.  And I think, perhaps, many of us who have been assaulted  wonder that same thing...until we see someone else come forward and be called names, denied investigation and receive death threats.  And then we know our voices only make us unsafe, exposed and victimized again. 

When an adult is not received with kindness and understanding as she gives voice to her sexual assault experience, how can we expect our children and grandchildren to feel safe coming forward at the time these things occur?  I think of what this week's news is telling my own children about the world, and I cringe.   What if, WHAT IF one of our own children does not come forward after an assault because of how victims are treated in today's society?

​Enough, enough already.