Saturday, September 15, 2007

Stop the silence, stop the violence

Kate rocks. She is funny, smart (an MD!), gorgeous, friendly, a whole hell of a lot of fun to be around, and she knows her knitting. Not only is she all that and a bag of chips, she's also one of the most courageous people I've ever known.
Kate is speaking out, as a survivor of sexual assault and abuse. And not only has she not crawled in a hole and hidden from the world for the rest of her life, she's also off residenting (I know that's not a real word, but I like it anyway) in psychiatry.
I am floored. I don't know how a human being can have that much strength. I really don't have the words to express it.
So I'm doing what I do best, and that's knit. Because after all, she deserves a damn scarf. I've yet to come up with the appropriate pattern and symbolism, and I doubt I ever will. But I'm going try, and I'm going to knit just the same.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time. It's time that, as a society, we step up and say this is not at all acceptable.
It's time to stop the violence.
And it's time to stop the silence.
One is not going to happen without the other. Kate is more than doing her part. Let's do what we can.
I know we knit for everything. We knit for breast cancer, we knit for poverty in all parts of the world, we knit for a friend that's having a bad day. Let's knit for this too.
Knit for Kate. Knit for the 1 in 4 women this will happen to at some point in their lifetimes. Email me at theoriesofstring[removethis]@gmail[removethis].com to start the campaign. I'm going to find a charity that supports survivors of abuse, and I'm going to start a drive for all sorts of knitted items.
Survivors of the world, you are not alone. We love you. We care. And we are going to put our needles where our mouths are.
And just to encourage you, everyone who contributes will get a reward, likely from my stash. (Not that you should need it, because this is a damn good cause anyway.)

4 comments:

DK said...

You so completely rock, my friend. There's just no other way to say it. Wow. Thank you.

The charity which collects scarves for acute victims of sexual assualt is Threads of Compassion, and in case that didn't link, they can be found here:

http://threadsofcompassion.bravehost.com/

Fully, absolutely rock.

Oh, and, residenting? Totally a word.

Lorna said...

Count me in - tell me where, what, who, how many and when and I'll be there with knitted things in hand!

Good idea and you're right - she's all that and MORE than a bag of chips!

Mistrmi said...

Count me in. I've had far too many students victimized.

Anonymous said...

I will help too, just give me the pattern, which also gives needle size --type of yarn I know soft, but stuff I can get at a rural LKS alias wal-mart unless wait till October for HL choices.

Could Teal be the National Color for this awareness like Pink is to Cancer?

Hey---how about a MUNDANE MONDAY to show we survived the weekend by knitting or completing a remarkable project.

WASHCLOTH ! ! ! ! Hehehe would send a picture but

Carol