About a year ago, Eve Ensler, activist, creator of “The Vagina Monologues” and founder of the global V-Day organization, made a declaration that one in three women on this planet will be beaten or raped during their lifetime. She said this was an atrocity and we, as human beings, must do something about it. With the world population at seven billion, this adds up to more than one billion women and girls who will be beaten or raped living on this planet today.
As an activist myself, I knew things were bad, but to add it up like that I was astonished. Think about it, one billion women and girls. One billion. How can we live in a world where this can happen? In Slippery Rock alone, we have rapes, sexual assaults and harassments that happen all the time. As a university we must come together to say this is not okay. Students should not be afraid to walk across campus at night in fear of an attack. We should feel safe all the time. The university has gone to great strides to ensure our safety, but it is not enough. We, as the people who live, study and work on this campus, should also strive to ensure each other’s safety.
On Feb. 14, 2013, V-Day’s 15th anniversary, everyone from each end of the globe(197 countries so far) are joining together and to express their outrage, demand change, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.
“When we started V-Day 14 years ago, we had the outrageous idea that we could end violence against women,” said Ensler. “Now, we are both stunned and thrilled to see that this global action is truly escalating and gaining force, with union workers, parliament members, celebrities, and women of all backgrounds coming forward to join the campaign. When we come together on February 14, 2013 to demand an end to violence against women and girls it will be a truly global voice that will rise up.”
Slippery Rock University will be standing up to join the global movement. We will be striking, dancing and rising in the Quad on Thursday, Feb. 14th at 12:30 p.m. The FMLA organization as well as other departments and organizations campus wide are asking all students/staff/faculty and administrators to come join us to rise up against this injustice and keep our community and our world safe. There will be speakers to inspire us, songs to make us dance and hot cocoa to keep us warm. Come join us in the greatest rising this campus has ever seen.
