|
To Our Readers:
It could really be any night--or day for that
matter. We chose Saturday Night as a representative
night because that is the time when it probably
happens most often: the silent crime which slowly
stains and breeds fear into our community. This
unspoken violence which plagues our campus and our
world is sexual assault.
Yet perhaps some speck of light flickers in the
darkness and promises a solution, an end to sexual
violence in our community. We need to spread this
light and embrace a movement which will transform
our campus and rally around the call for no more
victims. This is where we begin. This is our quest.
This is our vision.
With humble intentions, we offer that this
publication may be a starting point for reaching
this end. Following the Wannamaker sexual assault of
2002, the courageous survivor wrote to the Duke
student body calling for their stories and thoughts
on sexual violence at Duke. The responses were both
numerous and powerful, spurring the creation of this
publication. We were impressed by the variety of
responses that we received; many forced us to
question our definitions and approach to the topic.
We've tried to incorporate this spectrum of opinion
and avoid being dogmatic in order to begin a true
soul-searching on campus.
As editors of Saturday Night, our hopes are
two-fold. First, we want this publication to serve
as a source of empowerment and healing at Duke by
giving survivors a voice. Second, we hope that these
powerful words from survivors will touch and inform
all readers and, perhaps more importantly, serve as
a catalyst for a movement toward a community that no
longer tolerates sexual assault.
This movement will not be built without the
participation of all members of Duke's community.
We invite you as the reader to not only take these
stories and commentaries to heart, but also to
consider changes you can make in your daily life
to foster this larger movement. Your actions do
not have to be tremendous, but for change to take
place, our community must be energized and
committed to eliminating sexual violence at Duke.
We also encourage you to contribute to future
editions of this publication and to contact us if
you too feel that we must change the climate that
allows these acts to happen at Duke. In time, our
community can end the fear and violence that has
crept into our Saturday nights and every other
hour of the week.
The Editors of
Saturday Night,
| |
Allison Brim
Ryan Kennedy
|
Monica Lemmond
Lauren Williams
|
Note: The poems "My Closet" and "And There Is
Survial" were published by the University of
Michigan Press in a publication entitled
Writing to Stop Violence Against Women.
Although the stories in this publication come from
women, we would like to remind pepole that women are
not the only victims of sexual assault: men, too,
can be victims.
|
