Why We Don't Report

This is exceptionally powerful and spot on. We have such a history of not reporting! There’s a quote I first heard years ago that comes to me in this moment: “We’ll only go as deep as the support we perceive is available to us.” The fears and shame, minimizing and dissociation, self-blame and inner and outer critics have kept us silent. But this is shifting and courage is contagious. We are finding our voices and stepping into our truths and holding hands and hearts with others who finally, Finally, are speaking and - sometimes amidst great resistance and blowback ― being listened to and supported and believed. Yes, there is still all the shaming and blaming. And there are those of us who will be silent no more. And our numbers are growing! And the cruelty and violence and oppression of the patriarchal waters in which we’ve existed for thousands of years are increasingly giving way to the demand for justice, equality, respect, accountability, truth, caring, and compassion. A new world is dawning! ― Molly

We don’t report 
Because you ask us what we wore 
Were we drinking 
Did we say no 
We don’t report 
Because husbands can’t rape 
Because my mama would break 
She would never forgive herself 
For letting him in our home 
And I want to protect my mama 
The best way a 7 year old can 
We don’t report 
Because no one ever told me 
What consent was 
What my value is
That I can say no 
We don’t report 
Because long before my abuser
Groomed me 
Society groomed me 
Patriarchy groomed me 
That I am worthless 
I can’t even get paid equally 
So I am not protected equally 
When a man reports his priest 
For raping him decades ago 
He is heroic 
When I report my rapist 
To try and protect my nation 
I am a whore 
A liar 
A con 
A democratic plant 
Because upstanding 
Educated white men 
Don’t rape 
They don’t grab pussies 
We don’t report 
Because we know 
You don’t care 
And every time we 
find the courage 
That is deep within us 
Past the shadows of our screams 
Past the tattoos of hands that aren’t 
Our own 
Past the shame and pain 
We push down 
To try and love 
Past the tears no one heard 
Past the uncles at family BBQ’s that 
We are supposed to forgive 
Past the R Kelly’s songs on the radio 
Woody Allen films 
Or sacrificing my dignity 
For what Cosby did for the culture 
We push out our courage 
Through all of the darkness 
And hold it 
Like a newborn in our hands 
And then you murder it
Because we didn’t birth it sooner 
And with the blood of our dead hope
Covering us 
You scream in our faces 
WHY DIDN’T YOU REPORT

 ― Leslé Honoré