Eve Ensler: Over It

Eve Ensler, organizer of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and children worldwide

                

Over it.

I am over rape.

I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.

I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame

I am over people calling it freedom of speech and justifying it as a joke.

I am over people not understanding that rape is not a joke and I am over being told I don't have a sense of humor, and women don't have a sense of humor, when most women I know (and I know a lot) are really fucking funny. We just don't think that uninvited penises up our anus, or our vagina is a laugh riot.

I am over how long it seems to take anyone to ever respond to rape.

I am over the hundreds of thousands of women in Congo still waiting for the rapes to end and the rapists to be held accountable.

I am over the thousands of women in Bosnia, Burma, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, South Africa, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, you name a place, still waiting for justice.

I am over rape happening in broad daylight.

I am over a woman being gang raped and murdered on a bus in Delhi or gang raped and videoed in Steubenville Ohio.

I am over one in three women in the U.S military getting raped by their so-called "comrades."

I am over the forces that deny women who have been raped the right to have an abortion.

I am over rape victims becoming re-raped when they try to prosecute their cases

I am over women still being silent about rape, because they are made to believe it's their fault or they did something to make it happen.

I am over violence against women not being a #1 international priority when one out of three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime - the destruction and muting and undermining of women is the destruction of life itself.

No women, no future, duh.

I am over this rape culture where the privileged with political and physical and economic might, take what and who they want, when they want it, as much as they want, any time they want it.

I am over the endless resurrection of the careers of rapists and sexual exploiters - film directors, world leaders, corporate executives, movie stars, athletes - while the lives of the women they violated are permanently destroyed, often forcing them to live in social and emotional exile.

I am over the passivity of good men. Where the hell are you? You live with us, make love with us, father us, befriend us, brother us, get nurtured and mothered and eternally supported by us, so why aren't you standing with us? Why aren't you driven to the point of madness and action by the rape and humiliation of us?

I am over years and years of being over rape.

And thinking about rape every day of my life since I was 5 years old.

And getting sick from rape, and depressed from rape, and enraged by rape.

And reading my insanely crowded inbox of rape horror stories every hour of every single day.

I am over being polite about rape. It's been too long now, we have been too understanding.

We need to END RAPE in every school, park, radio, bus, TV station, household, office, factory, refugee camp, military base, back room, nightclub, alleyway. We need people to truly try and imagine - once and for all - what it feels like to have your body invaded, your mind splintered, your soul shattered. We need you to let our rage and our compassion connect us together so we can change the paradigm of global rape.

There are approximately one billion women on the planet who have been violated.

ONE BILLION WOMEN.

The time is now. One billion women are rising today to end rape.

Because we are over it.

One Billion Rising

ONE IN THREE WOMEN ON THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED OR BEATEN IN HER LIFETIME.

ONE BILLION WOMEN VIOLATED IS AN ATROCITY

ONE BILLION WOMEN DANCING IS A REVOLUTION

On V-Day’s 15th Anniversary, 14 February 2013, we are inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to this violence. ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth, activating women and men across every country. V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, our numbers, our solidarity across borders.

What does ONE BILLION look like? On 14 February 2013, it will look like a REVOLUTION.

ONE BILLION RISING IS:

A global strike
An invitation to dance
A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends
An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers
A refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given
A new time and a new way of being

SIGN UP TODAY

-OneBillionRising.org

IN POUGHKEEPSIE, participate in V-Day @12:15 at the Family Partnership Center, 29 N Hamilton Street for “a flash mob... followed by a lunch time dance party, monologue performance, and celebration.” RSVP here: http://onebillionrising.org/page/event/detail/startarising/4vxv3

Dear Mr. President

Comment: Charlie Davenport

The following is an open letter to President  Obama on the mortgage crisis in the United States sent to The Hudson Valley Radical by local activist Charlie Davenport. While we may not agree with everything written in work submitted to this newsletter, we have a policy of publishing all comments sent to us. Our response is written following the letter. 

Dear Mr. President:
As you are know, there is a mortgage crisis in our country. There are still 10.8 million properties underwater, about 22% of all mortgages, and there are 3 million homes in or close to foreclosure.
As you are know, economic calamities such as this crisis disproportionately affect minorities.

As you are know, if the principals on those 10.8 million underwater propertied were written down to actual value, making them available for sale, the effect on our nation’s economy would be profound. The National Association of Realtors contends that for every two homes sold, a job is created. Even with more conservative estimates, lots of jobs would be created.

As you know, the financial industries, oligarchic banks, and other economic predators responsible for the GW Bush financial collapse and economic crisis were “bailed out.”
As you know, the recovery from that economic crisis has not been impressive.

It is now time to “bail out” the American people, who were, and continue to be, the victims of the economic and mortgage crisis.

Mr. President, your administration has had magnificent and historic accomplishments. However, unless you take decisive steps in regard to the housing market, history will also remember you for presiding over the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression.

Editorial: Obama’s Record- Often Too Late, Always Too Little

Along with the most severe economic crisis since the great depression, we are also in the most severe mortgage crisis since that time. In spite of this, our president has done very little to stem the scourge of foreclosures, opting to sit back and let our neighbors lose their homes rather than take radical action to address the foreclosure crisis (such as advocating a moratorium on foreclosures). 

As Charlie points out, his failure to act will overshadow any accomplishments the president has achieved in his term (which we would consider to be, in themselves, half-baked compromises rather than fundamental change). This failure to act (or even advocate) effective solutions to the crisis that we face has been characteristic of Obama’s tenure as president on all issues, from foreclosures, to healthcare, to the economy. And despite his flowery campaign promises (sold to us in both 2008 and 2012), this should come as a surprise to no one. Even if Obama genuinely wanted to act to stop people from losing their homes, as a politician representing the capitalist class, he is unable to do so. 

It is precisely for this reason that we must engage in working class politics independent of the existing parties acting in the interests of capitalism. 

What are your thoughts on the foreclosure epidemic and Obama’s response? E-mail leftunited@gmail.com with your comment, and we'll publish it on this blog and send it out to our e-mail list. 

Fighting Back

If you or someone you know is facing foreclosure, reach out to Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson Home Defense Association and fight back to save your home!

According to the "About" section of Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson's website, their goal is to "educate, organize, and support homeowners and tenants to defend their right to remain in their homes and to hold banks accountable to help solve the housing crisis that these institutions created." 

Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson meets the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month from 4-5:30 PM at Christ Episcopal Church, 20 Carroll Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. 

For more information, e-mail nobodyleavesmidhudson@gmail.com or call (845) 481-0703