A worldwide pandemic. That is what we have all been through together. The whole world. That still amazes me. We know that people have had varied experiences during this massive upheaval of our lives. Yet all of us experienced the pandemic at the same time. We are going through the recovery at the same time. That fact fascinates me. I think of future generations and the stories we will tell. Remember the beginning? Shock. Fear. Confusion. Finally, acceptance that we had to sta

No one should be kept in captivity. All people have the right to live free lives with dignity and respect.

Imagine this: The danger is not to women. Rapes don’t happen in society, but surprisingly, dicks get cut off quite often. At an alarming rate. We call this Castration Culture. Men complain but there is nothing society does to stop it. The newspapers talk about it and describe what the man was wearing and doing at the time that may have influenced him getting his dick cut off. The reporters get complaints about titillation in their reporting. People make jokes about it. Men ar

TRIGGER WARNING: Rape For forty years I kept a photo of the boy who raped me. I kept his picture in my photo album, amidst all the happy photos of friends, travels and events.  He is sitting on a chair in the apartment I shared with my friend. He doesn’t look relaxed. He has a half smile and probably didn’t want his picture taken. Did he already have a plan? I had some sort of idea in the back of my mind that I would find him someday, confront him, destroy him, hurt him someh

I am tired of hearing about this violence over and over again. Rape. Rape. Rape Culture. Victims. Survivors.  Vulnerable women, youths and children. Their stories. Oh, so many stories. And now another one, closer to home. I was just told that a 14-year-old child of a friend was raped by her boyfriend. Same story. The same story I have heard so many times. As is often the case, this was her first introduction to what some term sex. I remember the friends in high school raped b

#TRIGGERWarning: Explicit & possibly upsetting content about #Rape NOTE: I edited this on February 12th, 2015, taking out the link to sign the petition at change.org. I am happy to report that the management at Heinz Hall DID THE RIGHT THING and Bill Cosby's appearance has been canceled. Amen. (Original post: 2015) I understand why the Heinz Hall Management in Pittsburgh is reluctant to postpone the Bill Cosby appearance. It’s about the money. It could be very expensive to pa