Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks. Herodotus
Fortune favors the brave. Virgil
I recently watched a documentary on "Pussy Riot" about the brave, fearless young women who stood up to the evil that Vladimir Putin is doing in Russia and in the Ukraine. Currently, no one is standing up to him and calling him out. In fact he is a thug and a criminal who has amassed a gigantic fortune to the tune of an estimated 41 billion dollars. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest this is not his salary. Instead this is the money he's stolen from the Russian nation. But Pussy Riot did something, they wrote and preformed inflammatory songs about the disgrace of Putin's reign. Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina are indeed human-rights advocates. They were tried and then imprisoned for just about two years until Putin was embarrassed into releasing them. Their crime: "making fun of religious people"---seriously.
Now Putin is invading Ukraine and beside these two young women where in the world are the leaders calling out this horrible bully?
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation. Susan B. Anthony
In our country another two young women are making waves, demanding justice and creating havoc...among the universities of this country. Annie E. Clark and Andrea Pino challenged the colleges on how they are dealing with the sexual assault that regularly happens on their campuses. Both women broke with the tradition of not identifying victims of sexual assault and outed themselves.
According to a report by Rebecca Johnson in Vogue magazine, "rape on campus in not new, one out of every five young women who attend college will, at some point be sexually assaulted." In doing research on the subject of sexual assault, Ms. Clark and Pino discovered a little known lever to aide in their crusade, Title IX. That law was created to insure that women's sports got fair treatment [and $] in the schools. The support came from the Obama administration's Russlynn Ali who in 2011 sent a letter to every university reminding them that "sexual violence is not only a crime but also a form of discrimination thus making it a violation of Title IX which guarantees equal access in education." Knowing that the penalty for violating Title IX is the withdrawal of federal funds, the young women had their lever. Says Kirsten Gillibrand [New York Senator] who after listening to the young women at her office on Capitol Hill, "we need citizen activists to bring attention to these situations." In other words with the correct lever [withdrawal of funds] the campuses had to start, albeit reluctantly, to pay attention and stop the rampant sexual assaults on their turf.
There has been backlash and while not threatened with imprisonment like Pussy Riot, Anne and Andrea lives have been threatened. Their organization is 'End Rape on Campus' and they have been actively helping women file complaints and providing survivor support.
Their activism has paid off. My husband and I were just in San Francisco and passed the university that had a banner across one of the entrance gates. On the banner was the Grim Reaper declaring that the school hadn't sufficiently enacted reforms against sexual assault. This is probably one of the 55 colleges under investigation by the Department of Education. Across the country there is now dialogue and the colleges have certainly been warned that sexual assaults will be taken seriously.
These are four extraordinary women who caught my attention for their bravery. This isn't a 'get rich quick scheme'. Clark and Pino confessed they are traveling the country by car and they still dress in clothes from the Goodwill. But they are amazing and all of us that care about the safety of our girls and women owe them a debt of gratitude. As for what you can do: cough up the dough and donate. Go to End Rape on Campus and then like their FB page.
Every day you probably pass ordinary women who speaking up for their children, or who work two or three jobs to support their families, who volunteer to work for the homeless and that is bravery too. Today I just wanted to honor the women who have willingly not worried about their reputations and their social standing and did the thing they thought they couldn't do. Go sisters.
susansmagicfeather copyright 2014 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved
