Growl for Justice

#MeToo Reformation

My first husband tried to kill me. I am here today because a neighbor called the police. I am Lutheran because my first husband was Lutheran. I was raised Catholic. His Lutheran pastor refused to marry us because of the abuse. He advised me to get away before I married my first husband. My Catholic…

Toxic Identity Politics

Identity politics is a popular subject in the news. It also was a hot topic when I went canvassing for Virginia’s November election. Specifically, some said they were tired of identity politics because they could not identify with a group like transgender youth, or women who marched for social justice, equal pay and a professional…

#MeToo A Brave New Culture

A few years ago the trending domestic violence hashtag was #whyIstayed or #whyIleft in defense of domestic violence victims after the media released footage of a NFL wife violently punched yet she stayed in the relationship. What kind of woman stays in an abusive relationship? Brave. It takes courage to stay. It is not easy…

#MeToo

I was twenty. He invited me to a party. He did not ask if I wanted to be raped. It should have been safe. It my brother’s friend’s apartment. But it was not safe. They laughed and someone handed me an open can of beer. I took a few sips. Everything got fuzzy. I now knew…

Abuse 101: Offenders, Other Scary Men (People), Politics and other Stuff

Does Harvey Weinstein know it’s domestic violence awareness month? Because he’s given everyone a lot to talk about. Sexual Assault Awareness Month is in April but we can’t wait until April to address these predators. While the assaults, plural assaults, didn’t just occur, they have just recently come to light almost a year to date…

An Advocate’s Dream: Domestic Tranquility

It’s Domestic Violence Month. It would be an understatement and perhaps insensitive to say this month started with a bang. On the very first day of October, violence claimed lives in Vegas. This year, I’m going to use a broader meaning for domestic because violence isn’t just in the house or the bedroom or some…

Did Lady Justice Make a Sound when Truth was Broken?

Our current President has given me more cause to repeatedly read the US Constitution than my high school US History Teacher. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and…

RESIST- America’s Other branch of Government – We the People

Another American Revolution began with not one but a pandemonium of shots heard around the world. The American people mutiny governance by billionaire tyrants who with a stroke of a pen and a laugh remove and restrict the rights of “We the People.” The battle cry heard around the world, “Resist” Women armored in pink…

Little Pitchers have Big Ears – What are they hearing?

Our children are listening. What are they hearing? In one week with the stroke of a pen this new Administration elected to move back in time . The first time machine was set to immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act AKA Obamacare by declaring it a financial burden and repealing the funding. In some homes…

Friendly Reminder: How to Treat Refugees

Christ-like response to refugees: I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit…

Simple Truth About Pink Hats

Advocacy is not for the faint-hearted. Advocacy is a strange roller coaster of similar and not so similar people jumping on a train before knowing how fast the car will go to its highest peak before it drops to its lowest and back and forth around turns until the ride ends with a stream of…

Successful Advocate

Bob Bland, Founder and Co-Chair of the Women’s March on Washington is a successful advocate. Ms. Bland was successful in turning her election grief into an incredible National Committee which organized the historical Women’s March on Washington with an inspiring panel of speakers to call their fellow grieving sisters (and brothers) to join them in…