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Decades Later: Anita Hill and Marie Collins. Has Anything Really Changed?

3/26/2014

 
By Philip Foley
Two recent articles in the New York Times caught my eye.  The first http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/movies/anita-hill-is-celebrated-in-the-documentary-anita.html?_r=0 was about Anita Hill the reluctant witness in the explosive Thomas confirmation hearings back in 1991. I remember watching the hearings as Ms. Hill was grilled in excruciatingly graphic detail by an all-white, all-male Senate Committee about her assertion of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas.  I believed her then and I believe her now. My question is will she fare any better in the public eye two decades later as the movie of her life Anita opens. It is unlikely when you still have statement by women like Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network, an advocacy group indicating that “I honestly think she’s just making it up,”.

In the second article about the Catholic Pope naming members to an Anti-Abuse Group http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/world/europe/pope-names-members-of-anti-abuse-group.html

The article stated that the committee will include four female members, including Marie Collins, an Irish woman who was abused as a girl in the 1960s and later became a national activist to help other victims.
Since the Catholic Church has been accused of covering up sexual abuse by its priests for at least five decades what real expectations can one have of the success of this commission.

I believe it is best summed up in the article by the statement made by The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group founded in the United States that has now become international, said the panel “perpetuates the self-serving myth that Catholic officials need more information about abuse and cover-ups.” It added: “They don’t. They need courage. They know what’s right” already.

I wish Ms. Hill and Ms. Collins all the best in their fight for justice and I applaud their courage to speak in spite of overwhelming odds. It is my hope that the public as a whole has evolved in the understanding of abuse.  My experience is it has not.

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    About the Author

    In the provocative spirit of Matilda Joslyn Gage, Gloria Anzaldua, and Mary Daly, Kathleen Hoy Foley expands and deepens the voice of female experience.

    Raw. Uncompromising. Compassionate. Deliberately antagonistic. Kathleen writes to awaken the courage within the reader.


    TO THE SURVIVOR
    If you are a person who was victimized as a child or as an adult, I am so very sorry you ever had to suffer at the hands of a predator. 

    I am sorry you were abused, sorry no one protected you, sorry you have felt so alone, sorry you have been so afraid then and in the now. I am so sorry for the loss of your innocence. 

    You were and are entitled to you life. And you had a right to inherit your own body. And no matter what you did or what you think you failed to do you are not to blame. Sexual abuse is never a victim's choice. Sexual abuse is something that was done to your body not something you wanted. 

    This is an excerpt from: 

    http://web.archive.org/web/20130101063123/http://true-perspective.org 

    Kathleen and I encourage you to visit this site for perspective on your ordeal. Live happy and whole. Claim you power! 

    You are your own authority.

    Question Everything.  Including social, religious & political authorities

    Learn to listen and respond to your intuition.  It is never wrong.

    Learn to be impolite.  It must be part of your defense system.

    Nothing is unspeakable.

    Stare truth in the eye and speak it.

    You name abuse.  Listen to your body.  It will tell you.  It is never wrong. 

    Stare abuse in the eye and speak it.

    Stare abusers in the eye and name them.

    Use your voice.  Use your words. 

    BE LOUD.  Violence against girls, boys, women and men hides in the silent shadows.

    Know that you are powerful.

    KNOW THAT YOUR VOICE IS POWERFUL.   USE IT.



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