End Rape Culture in 2013 in the United States too

"We live in a country where politicians call rape a "gift from God" and suggest that women regularly lie about being raped. Where a group of young men in high school think so little of sexual assault that they thought it was fine - hilarious, even - to post pictures online of a passed out rape victim, and to live-tweet the rape, joking about the victim being urinated on. We live in a country where media as revered as The New York Times finds it necessary to describe an 11-year-old gang rape victim as "wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s.” Where a woman can be fired because her boss finds her "irresistable" [sic] and a woman's rape case falls flat because she isn't married. 

It's time to acknowledge that the rape epidemic in the United States is not just about the crimes themselves, but our own cultural and political willful ignorance.  Rape is as American as apple pie - until we own that, nothing will change.”

—     - Jessica Valenti, The Nation


Read the full blog post here:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/172024/americas-rape-problem-we-refuse-admit-there-one#

Fellowship Positions | Polaris Project | Combating Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery

Polaris Project offers a wide variety of fellowship positions with a focus on teaching our leaders of tomorrow how to combat the issue of human trafficking:

http://www.polarisproject.org/about-us/careers/fellowship-positions

Why I participate in the Walk For Hunger – anyway I can

The Walk For Hunger is an annual event organized by Project Bread, one of Massachusetts’ premiere organizations working on the frontlines to combat hunger in the state.

It began as a way to raise funds to support Project Bread’s work way back in 1969, by a small but intrepid group.  Almost 43 years later, the Walk For Hunger raises raises hundreds of thousands of  dollars through its walkers, which is no longer a small and intrepid group but a huge and intrepid group.
I count myself as one of the them.

Ever since the day a representative from Project Bread came to my high school and told us about hunger in Massachusetts and how we mere high school students could take action to help in the fight against it, I’ve walked all 20 miles, collected money, volunteered with registration and spread the word about the work that Project Bread and other organizations that fight hunger.

It never gets old for me, though at times it can be hard.

I hate that while we have made strides in how we deliver food to people in need and that we are being more nutritionally responsible to those who receive that food, the demand increases every year.
I hate that the more people try to get ahead, the more people have to decide between food and shelter, let alone food and dreams.

Nevertheless, the fight goes on and I am committed to it.  We are all just one job, one wage cut, one medical expense, one catastrophic event away from hunger.

Please give to Project Bread to support it’s work to make sure that residents in Massachusetts of all walks of life are little less hungry today than they were yesterday:
http://www.projectbread.org/site/PageServer?pagename=donate_main