Reunion Online

One day last summer I was working in my front garden--part of my notion of having vegetable garden domination on my little plot of earth. I was tending the rows of tomatoes, basil, beets and kale, when an older woman, dressed in black, stopped and started to chastise me about my weeding technique.

I didn’t really understand her, as her English was not so good and my Italian is -- ahem -- non-existent. Still, she showed me, good naturedly, the proper technique of tilling the earth.

As some of you may know, Joyful Heart is part of an exciting and transformative initiative called NO MORE, a movement to unite all of us around one universal symbol and the simple message that together we can end domestic violence and sexual assault.

I had the privilege recently of attending the national summit of a new initiative lead by Esta Soler and her team at Futures Without Violence and the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention called The Y Factor: Men Leading By Example. The event saluted and encouraged activists and survivors who are committed to ending violence against women and children.

Thanks to you and the other members of our community, today—Sexual Assault Awareness Month Day of Action—marks an important and revolutionary moment for the Joyful Heart Foundation. And because of your generosity and commitment, we've been able to help transform lives and create change in how communities and the criminal justice system respond to sexual violence.

"Good" and "evil" always seem like handy labels, especially when describing those involved in incidents of child sexual abuse.

So depending on your point of view, I was either blessed or cursed by lessons I learned 25 years ago from Roger, a complicated man who upended any certainty I had that the distinctions between "good" and "evil" are actually so sharply defined.

Why haven't I worked through all these issues? Why am I still not healed?

Most of us who are survivors ask ourselves these questions many times. "I've been on this journey for five years. When does it end?"

They are the questions we ask on our worst days.

On September 28, 2011, five weeks before the Penn State story would dominate news and sports pages, NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit aired "Personal Fouls," a groundbreaking episode on sexual abuse of boys in sports. For viewers of the original airing, "Personal Fouls" was a remarkable prelude to, and preparation for, the revelations of November: the detailed charges against Jerry Sandusky, the institutional complicity that allowed it to continue for years, and the individual courage that, when backed by family and community support, can bring such tragedies to an end.

 Tonight is a very important one—for Joyful Heart, the community of survivors we seek to serve and for millions of viewers who will tune in to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

On December 8, 2011, more than 80 people will come together to talk about domestic violence and sexual assault at Liz Claiborne Inc.’s eighth annual It’s Time to Talk Day.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is due for reauthorization. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) will introduce a bipartisan bill on tomorrow, Wednesday, November 30th to reauthorize and improve VAWA.