This is uniquely painful because it is so often true. Society as a whole has a terrible time dealing with an unjust world. To know how widespread rape and abuse are is to embrace a level of horror (I’ve been through a gang rape and a military doctor who raped me repeatedly, the hand that is up is a knowing hand) that is hard to accept. This I think is exacerbated by religion, which wants desperately to believe in a just God. A kind God. A God what wouldn’t allow beautiful little chocolate drop girls get ravaged, killed, sold off and used like so many toilet paper tissues, with about as much respect. A caring God that wouldn’t allow his lovely female creations be brutalized. But. He. Does. Because WE do, and our denial, or unwillingness to understand just how vicious and ingrained this issue is.

My friends who love me, accept that those rapes helped sculpt me. It also damaged me badly, and I still struggle at times.

There is no justice for this. It is indeed a global epidemic. I am one of the byproducts. I. Will.Not. Yield. Nor will I allow the behavior of a few genuinely evil men undermine my love and respect for the good ones.

Thank you for this. Thank you for caring. When we turn our eyes away, we offer implicit and explicit permission for it to continue. We must look. And we must call it out. Or it will never, ever stop.