When I told my story of being beaten and raped as a young woman, my mother said I was "just looking for attention."
Telling my story helped me heal anyway.
I pray that this is true for Dr, Christine Blasey Ford, no matter how the vote in the US Senate goes.
When I hear women say that if Ford drank at a party she "deserved whatever she got" I wonder what happened to them when they were young, and how much pain is buried deep so they can say such a thing about a fifteen year old girl.
Let's not call each other dehumanizing names, even in our own minds. Because if we can only work for fairness by making those who disagree with us something less than fellow human beings, on some level we lose the shared humanity that will let us go forward together.
When I was a child, I was taught that Jesus said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Even then I knew it was a revolutionary idea and something very hard to do. I also knew it did not mean being passive, but meant participating fully in shaping our shared world.
I pray we can find ways to stop injustice and work for real peace without putting the other out of our hearts. I know it's hard. If it wasn't hard I wouldn't have to pray about it.
When I told my story of being beaten and raped as a young woman, my mother said I was "just looking for attention."
Telling my story helped me heal anyway.
~Oriah "Mountain Dreamer" House
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