Yesterday, the verdict for the Stubenville rape case came out. I was shocked and disappointed in the 1 & 2 year sentences the rapists received. Today I am physically nauseated. I can’t wrap my brain around the reaction and create full sentences. I am stupefied. I am disgusted by the rape culture that our society embraces. I am disturbed by the slut shaming and the twisted way the media has created victims out of criminals. It makes me want to crumple into a ball and cry. To just give up and surrender defeat.
I am dazed and confused in the overwhelm. When confronted with this type of overwhelm; at the vastness of the problem to you act or lay down in defeat? Do you lick your wounds in the corner and try not to make a sound? Do you pretend it never happened, smile and embrace the fact that tomorrow is a new day? Do you keep it to yourself? (Do these questions sound all too familiar????????)
In grappling with these questions I’m moving from overwhelm and sorrow to anger. I am pissed off. I want to jump up, punch the rape apologists in the face and give a hearty FUCK YOU to the media outlets (CNN, ABC, NBC and USA Today…and especially Fox News for outing the victim).
We can’t give up. We can’t let overwhelm feed apathy. We have to continue. We have to fight. To change one mind at a time. We have to BE the change.
Joy up By Design 
Talk to me!