Thank you, but yet, the silence was deafening…

I don’t believe in making peace these days. Peace is an illusion, a thing that will never happen, and frankly, something I am too burned to want anyway.

Most of the time.

There are disagreements that are far too big to get past. But yet, still, sometimes things happen, things just so blatantly wrong and off that I assume (my mistake) that they are reasons for all of us to set aside our respective bullshit and come together, as women no less.

I thought the PA Judge Deni/Rape of a Prostitute Case might be one such issue.

And I was thrilled to see who did speak out on this, anywhere, anytime, who did say at least something, even if I otherwise rarely agree with them. So thank you. Thank you Bint, Daisy, Ocotgalore, Shannon, Belledame, Feministe, Shakespeare's Sister, Dr. Violent Socks. Thanks Amber and Jill and Lisa. Thank you for making it news on your spaces.

Thank you women of Bound, Not Gagged. Thank you people who participated in that blogging event. Thank you Gretchen. Eye to eye we are not, but thank you anyway.

Thank you to BfP and Black Amazon, who remind us that there are other issues in play here, including the survivors race, her economic status, the conditions of the city in which she lives…and ffs, reality in the really real world, because they are right, these things do matter.

Thanks to all of you, and everyone else who wrote on this event, the abuse of this woman by not only her attackers but the justice system itself. Thank you a whole lot.

Now then…where the fuck were the rest of you? The rest of the feminists? The rest of the “outreachers”? The rest of the defenders of women, helpers of sex workers, enemies of abuse, both physical and legal? Where the hell were you? Did you not know of the case? I find that odd, seeing as it has been discussed on several blogs of several different bents: feminist blogs, WoC blogs, sexworker blogs, legal blogs. Do you not care? I find that hard to believe too. Did you find that because certain people had already found it, run with it, engaged in activism around it, yelled loud and proud about it, called and emailed this judge in outrage and offered support to the survivor that the topic was now tainted? Good gods, did the fact that the sex workers and the WoC with Internet connections jumped all over this first, organized and did something all on their own scare you off?

That really, really says something. None of it too very good. And yep, I’m being harsh. Not only is it in my nature to be, it is warranted. Gods I hope I am wrong in my pessimistic assumptions. One thing we could all get behind, perhaps even bury our personal shit on for to get behind, an issue where everyone’s proverbial doors were open and discussions could be had, support could be given, things could be done…

Wasted. Not because anyone dropped the ball, but because some folk simply refused to pick it up. There’s the nail in the coffin of any form of cooperative activism and outreach right there. And guess who forged it? That’s right.

But yeah, thank you to those who did speak out, participate, say something. Thank you very much. Thank you for remembering that at the heart of this case, and the heart of this issue, there are two women, one with power, and one without.