Human Rights

Is this a matter of 'too much discussion and not enough practical action' or worse, 'little discussion (by those who really should be addressing this) and even less action (from said people)'?

How is it the people who have the power to create or influence change are often the ones perpetuating the situation, or grossly negligent? Is this really an area to be thrown to the sidelines or tip toed around?

When will we see adequate funding and legislation and policies that actually make a difference?

What can we as the general community do? If we come together and pool our resources, perhaps we will see less standing in our way towards a better tomorrow. Maybe we don't have much financially but what we have can go a long way.

We can fund raise. We can write, sing, act, design, talk. We have talents that can be put to great use. Why not channel what we do have towards creating awareness and affecting change?

We are creative when we're cornered. When there seems to be no solution, our minds kick into overdrive to find that way out. That way no one has had to come up with before. That way no one has bothered exploring. We become the solution.

Much can be achieved today with little, thanks to the development in technology. Take social media for example. Facebook, Twitter, blog hosts. They cost us nothing but these pages can go viral within seconds. Information can travel across the globe in the click of a mouse, the tap of a keyboard. People once separated by oceans and state lines now face no boundaries.  

I have spent years crying over what I have seen, read, heard. Years haunted by images,  faces, words. Who said I was inadequate and incapable? Who told me I was incapacitated? Who decided it was better for me to hide in my shell and crumble in fear than to stand up and do something? Who got the final say on whether it was possible to make something good happen?

For so long I wondered if I was just going crazy, if I was the only one who felt this way. Did I find those stories or did those stories find me? Was it really a coincidence? The countless times I randomly flipped open a magazine or scanned articles on the Internet or switched TV channels, that I landed on a story about rape? Why did it seem no one else was noticing or being taken in by the story...taken in physically, emotionally, psychologically?

But I'm not alone.

I'm going to start somewhere. I'm going to start now.

Are you with me?