Street roots
9
April 13, 2012
Street Roots was honored to take
part in judging this year's
Physicians for Social
Responsibility Greenfield Peace
Writing Contest.
Five writers were recognized this
month for their essays, poems
and stories addressing the
relationship between militarism
and human needs. Winners were
chosen from 57 entries from
across the state who responded
to this topic: "In 1953, U. S.
President and World War II
Supreme Allied Commander,
Dwight Eisenhower said, ‘Every
gun that is made, every warship
launched, every rocket fired,
signifies in the final sense a theft
from those who hunger and are
not fed, those who are cold and
are not clothed.’ How is this
statement relevant today?" The
top winner received a cash prize
of $1,000, and a certificate signed
by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.
The first place was awarded to
Ailish Duff, a senior at West Linn
High School for her poem entitled
“They are Here Today.”
They are Here Today
By Ailish Duff
They are here today.
the underprivileged
those who misfortune has hung on like disease,
something you cannot shake.
They are here today:
the man who pumped your gas
(you snapped at him),
the woman who stays behind
7 hours each night, at your office
to take care of your messes
because you are too good to deal with
the dirt you create.
They are here today:
the girl who sits next to you in class —
the one whose clothes you sneer at
hand-me-downs
or thrifted, if she’s lucky
the boy who you think smells
because he doesn’t shower enough
for your taste
They are here today.
those who hunger and are not fed:
for knowledge, opportunity, or breakfast
those who are cold and are not clothed
in Africa, in Tibet, on the other side of town
you are lucky—
you who
can read words like these
unlimited resources at your fingertips
you are lucky, and you do not see
how strong your voice is
when you consider everyone who is mute,
everyone who cannot speak.
They are here today
and while they cannot speak,
they hear
every rocket fired
they see
every gun shoved in their face
all too clearly.
they know
that they are someone’s last priority
that you have no problem
stealing from them in the name of
God, of
Country and Glory
they know
but they are still here
WRITE, from page 7
D.L.: The one that really stays with me
is the most brutal, from a really strong
woman. She survived so much. The only
thing she was in prison for was robbery,
and she robbed a pharmacy to kill herself
because her husband said he was going to
rape her daughter.
They were getting divorced and her
husband took off, and he called and said
that he had raped an 11-year-old girl the
night before and said he was planning to
rape their daughter too and then hung up.
For her, that was the final straw. She had
been through so much before in her life,
but hearing that about her daughter was
too much to take. So she robbed a
pharmacy to take the pills, and they found
her in her truck and took her to the
hospital and then to prison for her trouble.
And she said when she woke up and saw
the guy with the FBI vest on she thought,
“Damn. I can’t even kill myself right.” And
so she went to prison and the whole time
she was there she was taking classes and
trying to better herself.
J.T.: Was her daughter OK?
D.L.: Her daughter is OK.
J.T.: Tell me about some o f the challenges
that these women face coming out o f prison
as well as the challenges facing survivors of
domestic abuse.
D.L.: A lot of it is self doubt. They feel
unworthy. Even the ones that haven’t been
to prison, the ones that have been abused
are less likely to reach out for help and
less likely to stand up for themselves. To
be able to give them back that feeling of
control is the most important part.
Another thing that they face is just the
lack of confidence and lack of believing in
thernselves.
When someone is abused domestically
or sexually, it kills the person that they
would have been. It just takes that person
away and replaces it with this new version
of who they’re going to be and a lot of
them don’t feel like that person is good
enough to do what they wanted to do. And
it holds them back from seeking education
or going for jobs and gets them into
situations of worse domestic violence. It
just sets them on a path of destruction.
There are a lot of people who have been
abused who go on to be perfectly fine, but
I think that every single one of us has that
self doubt and feeling less than worthy.
J.T.: How do you help people get past that,
these feelings o f self doubt?
D.L.: Well, the biggest thing for them to
understand is that it’s not their fault. No
one is responsible for the abuse that was
done to them, and what they need to do is
understand that just because this
happened it doesn’t take away who you are
and what you can be. I look at it for me
that this is the ultimate way to thumb my
nose at my abuser; the more I do this is a
slap in the face for every abuser out there.
It’s a way for them to regain their control
and let them know that they are not alone
and don’t have to sit there and be quiet
about it. There’s this culture about keeping
it quiet, and it’s wrong. I understand that
in some cases it can destroy families. But
you’re an adult and you need to be able to
stand up and say, “This happened to me
and it’s who I am and I didn’t ask for it.” It
helps them get some confidence back.
J.T.: Does the writing you get from the
people you work with have a common thread?
D.L.: You know, I think there’s a
commonality in all of them. One of the
women was being bullied really bad. It’s a
confidence destroyer. Any kind of abuse
just wipes away their power. That’s
common through all of these. Some of
these women had the best parents. They
come from all economic backgrounds,
they’re all kinds of women. But they all
h a v e th a t lo n e lin e s s th a t fe e lin g s e p a r a te d
as a commonality. They’re the ones whose
families did know what was going on. They
still have trouble relating to them. When
you have a teenage daughter being beaten
by their boyfriend, it leaves them thinking
that they’re alone.
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Office Cat Rooty says thank
you to volunteers Robert Britt
and E li Richey who helped
paint our office. Thank you!
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