Forty years ago on May 4, 1970, 4 students were killed and 11 injured when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a students protesting the Vietnam war on the campus of Kent State Univerisy. The shootings divided the USA. Some wondered how a nation could treat its own children in this manner. Others unconditionally accepted whatever decisions were made by the National Guard. College campuses exploded with demonstrations and within a week 100,000 marched on the US capital to protest.

That day four families lost a child.

• Doris and Arthur lost their daughter Allison Krause. Laurel lost her older sister. On her tomb they wrote “flowers are better than bullets” because only a few days before she had placed a lillac in a friendly soldier’s gun barrel using those words.
• Louis and Florence Schroeder lost their son, Bill. Bill Schroeder was an ROTC student who had committed himself to 10 years in his countries service: 4 as a ROTC student, 4 as a full-time officier, and 2 in reserve.
• On the day of the shootings, Elaine Holstein, Jeff Miller’s mother, was listening to the car radio as she drove home. She heard that four had been killed, never dreaming that one would be her own son. They had both been concerned about the tensions, and she decided to ask him to come home. When she got home, she called his fraternity and asked for her son. A boy answered “He’s dead”.
• Sandy Scheuer was simply passing through on her way to class when the bullets began to fly. Her parents were Holocaust refugees who had come to the US expecting to live in a state that would protect them.

Dean Kahler survived the attack but the bullet in his spine put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. In the years immediately following his parents struggled with overprotectiveness and he worked to overcome his anger at the loss of the use of his legs. Even with the anger, the shooting only served to strengthen his conviction that there must always be an alternative to violence and war. To work through his anger he became active in wheelchair sports and helped out with his school’s disability office.

The political allegiances that split the nation also fed the blame-the-victim mentality that so often affects the survivors of violent crimes. Along side many, many letters of support, Dean Kahler received hate mail. Some letters even wished he had died. Joseph Lewis, Jim Russell, and Robert Stamps, belonged to families that were certain that the National Guard was in the right. Their families responded to their injuries with anger and judgment rather than support.

But loss is only the beginning of the story. Kent State has turned into a historic event because the survivors found ways to turn their loss into both personal and social healing. Some worked to preserve the memory of what happened. Some fought to make the government accountable for its actions. Some saw Kent State as a symbol for deeper social problems and sought to address them.

In the 1970’s survivors fought all the way to the Supreme court to give families the right to sue the Governor and the National Guard (Scheuer v. Rhodes). Separate suits by the families were later united into a single suit, Krause v. Rhodes. Though the case was settled out of court in 1979, the judicial decisions along the way set new standards for government accountability.

In April, Alan Canfora (shot in the wrist) and Terry Strubbe (witness) announced efforts to reopen the investigation on the basis of a tape which allegedly has an audible “Right here, Get Set, Aim, Fire”. The government investigation in the early 1970’s had concluded that soldiers fired without orders, but the timing of the start and end of the fire – a tight volley of shots over the course of 13 seconds suggests otherwise.

During the first week of May, Doris and Laurel Krause, Dean Kahler, and Tom Grace (shot in the foot) and several other witnesses are participating in a Truth tribunal , modelled on truth and reconciliation commissions used to address government violence in Africa and South America. The proceedings will be documented by Emily Kunstler, daughter of the William Kunstler, the civil rights attorney that helped the survivor families in their 1970’s legal battles.

A 40 year battle for justice may seem extreme, but Joe Lewis, shot in the leg and stomach, puts it this way:

Many think it should be buried, and they tried to do that by building the gym. You can’t bury what happened. You have to live with it. not necessarily to dwell on it but go on with our lives and incorporate what we all have, or should have, learned that May 4.

The lessons learned from Kent state extend well beyond Kent State and well beyond the 1970’s. Mike Alwitz, a witness to the shootings, became an artist and has dedicated much of his life to painting peace and justice murals in urban centers and areas of conflict. The Kent May 4 Center, lead by Alan Canfora, has a ten point mission statement that includes both Kent State Shooting remembrances and promoting the importance of student social activism on and off campus.

Mary Ann Vecchio, who was standing right beside Jim Miller when he was shot comes to campus each spring to talk to students and shares these words:

I tell them it shows what can happen if the evildoers get too much power. They can take your freedom away. You could be walking to school, and what happened back then could happen to you

Barry Levine who was by the side of his girlfriend Allison Krause when she was killed teaches both the necessity and risks of challenging authority:

You need to be conscious of the fact that questioning authority anywhere can be a benign learning experience, or it can be dangerous, because a government is always going to act to preserve itself. But do I think it’s still vital to question authority? Always, from the beginning to the end of time.”

Arthur Krause, Allison Krause’s father, spoke often about how Kent State taught him the true cost of apathy:

I feel a great sense of guilt because I realized what was going on but didn’t do a damn thing about it. Like most Americans these days, we sit on the fence and depend on the lawyer, the church, and the government to do whatever should be done, but if the government doesn’t have the right people on the job, nothing will be done …. and we, the people, have to make the government good. Apathy will not be part of my make-up anymore. Apathy is what caused Kent State.

In memory of those who died and in gratefulness for those who lived, may we also say: “Apathy will not be part of our make-up anymore.”

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Later today, thirty-seven miles west of Krakow, Poland, ten thousand high school students, representing forty countries, will join adults of all ages and participate in the March of the Living. There, the “marchers” will retrace the steps of the “March of Death,” the actual route which countless numbers of people were forced to take on their way to the gas chambers at Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built by the Nazis during World War II. As is tradition, the March begins at the gate of the Auschwitz I site, with its inscription Arbeit macht frei (“work will set you free”), and concludes at the site of the Auschwitz II – Birkenau camp.

The March will go on as planned, despite Saturday’s air tragedy that took the lives of the Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, his wife, Maria Kaczynski, and dozens of the country’s top political and military leaders. Poland has declared a week of mourning and March participants will express their solidarity with the Polish people by observing a moment of silence.

This year, The March marks 65 years since the liberation of the death camps and the end of World War II and will pay special tribute to the memory of the million and a half children who were killed during the war. Additionally, this year’s program will call attention to survivors from different professional and social fields in order to emphasize how the Jewish community has succeeded in rebuilding a new world out of the ashes of the Holocaust.

A delegation from Israel, led by Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and former Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, includes both Holocaust survivors and a cross-section of young Israelis, including internationally ranked tennis player Shahar Peer and film and television actor, Ohad Knoller. Black ribbons have been attached to the delegations’ flags as a visible sign of recognizing, and remembering, Saturday’s tragedy.

about: The mission of the March of the Living is to challenge a new generation of Jews with two of the most significant events of Jewish history – the Shoah and the birth of the State of Israel. It is achieved by bringing Jewish teenagers to many of the key places where these events took place, in order to understand the world that was destroyed and how Israel was established. This is intensified by sharing these experiences with Holocaust survivors.

The program strives to create memories, leading to a revitalized commitment to Judaism, Israel and the Jewish People; allowing March’ers to educate their peers about the Holocaust and to fight those who would deny its history, while forging a dynamic link with Israel.

This article originally appeared in eJewishPhilanthropy.com; reprinted with permission.

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The exact date varies from city to city and school to school, but each year in the 3rd or 4th week of April, politicians, activists, students, celebrities, military personnel, survivors, and concerned citizens go to work or school wearing a pair of jeans to protest sexual violence and the social attitudes that support it.

Rape and sexual assault are not the only human ills remembered with denim. Each year Lee Jeans sponsors a breast cancer awareness day in May. In India, activists where jeans in December to raise awareness for HIV and AIDS. In September of each year, the Irish Youth Foundation promotes denim day to raise funds for underprivileged Irish youth.

The use of jeans to protest rape and sexual assault has its origins in a 1999 decision of the Italian supreme court.  In February, 1999,  the Italian supreme court overturned the rape conviction of a 45 year old driving instructor because his 17 year old student had been wearing tight jeans at the time of the rape.  The judges argued that the woman had consented because the jeans were tight and could not be removed without the victims cooperation. The effect of intimidation or psychological coercion was not considered.

Italian members of parliament protesting the 1999 court decision that let a rapist go free because his victim was wearing tight jeans.

The decision spawned an outcry in Italy and around the globe. In Italy, several women members of parliament wore jeans to parliamentary sessions. In April of that year, activists in Los Angelos, California (USA) organized the first ever Denim day in solidarity with the women of Italy.

The Italian supreme court eventually overturned its infamous “jeans” decision in 2008. This decision was the final step of a series of court decisions that have gradually undercut the 1999 decision. A summary of these decisions can be found on line in the Colombia Journal of European Law.

Rape never exists in a vacuum. It often forces us to think beyond the specific issue of rape to larger principles. This case was no exception. The deep discrepancy between the Italian court’s endorsement of the “jeans defense” and evolving social mores in Europe and around the globe forced some to re-evaluate the relationship between legal process and social norms. An example of this is Kitty C. Calvita’s 2001 article published in Law and Society review: Blue jeans, rape, and the ‘de-constitutive’ power of law.

In the USA Denim Day continues to be honored with rape and sexual assault awareness activities. The specific legal decision that inspired it is thankfully part of history, but the need to raise awareness of rape and the role of psychological coercion continues.

Colleges, rape crisis centers, and even military bases in California, Guam, Idaho, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Nevada, and South Carolina all actively promote Denim Day both on and off line. Two organizations in particular, Support Denim Day and Peace Over Violence are working to make Denim day into a national event.

Although Denim Day began with the protest of Italian parliamentarians, it does not seem to have caught on outside the USA. Perhaps there are efforts on the ground and out of the sight of the web, but so far the only mention of Denim Day for the sake of sexual assault comes from a blogger in in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia who wrote a post promoting Denim Day in 2008.

If you or your organization would like to promote Denim day, please consider visiting either Support Denim Day or Peace Over Violence. Both sites are keeping a registry of Denim Day participants and have a number of programming and promotion ideas.

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It began with a guerrilla art campaign in New York in 1994. Today it is a three part fine art exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania running from February 17 through March 5.

Charles Hall, then a creative director at Chiat Day Advertising, threw himself a 30th birthday party. The next morning he found out that someone had tried to rape one of his guests. In response he designed a stickers with the slogan “This isn’t an invitation to rape me” and plastered them all over New York City.

But it didn’t stop there. He convinced a group of photographers to donate striking black and white photographs and arranged to have them published in mass media publications, among them Der Speigel, Elle, and Playboy. The stickers and ad campaign were eventually donated to Peace Over Violence (formerly the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women). It was used in anti-rape campaigns throughout the state of California. Posters and stickers based on the original ad campaign were also sold at minimal cost to anti-rape organizations across the USA.

Each picture illustrated a different circumstance where people tend to excuse a man’s behavior and see it as “bad sex” rather than rape: marriage, sexy clothes, drunkenness, homelessness, kissing, and so on. The phrase “This is not an invitation to rape me” was included in small red print on each image. A sampling of the images are shown below. The full collection of stickers and images can be seen here.

Ellen Von Unwerth

Mario de Lopez

Tony Ward

Moshe Brahka

Scottish campaign

The campaign went international in 2007 when the government of Scotland asked Charles Hall to adapt the campaign to the UK market. For the revision, Charles worked together with Clifford Graham and Julie Cerise. Full color photographs replaced the original black and white images. On the new color images, the difficult-to-see red slogan was replaced with the same words in yellow framed by a pink tear drop.

The Scottish campaign ran in two phases, in the fall of 2008 and 2009. A website with interactive posters was created. The images were plastered on billboards and bus stops.  The campaign was warmly received by the advertising industry, feminists, and anti-rape activists, and even the Scottish trade unions. However, many of the comments left on the website and non-feminist blogs do raise doubts about how effective the campaign is at changing attitudes. One of the participants in the campaign, a rape survivor who had done voice overs and interviews for a radio and television component to the campaign recently went public with her identity. She protested the offensive comments left on the campaign website and also highlighted the need for additional efforts to change public attitudes.

Fox Exhibit Hall (Daily Pennsylvanian)

The University of Pennsylvania exhibit represents the next stage in the development of this campaign, both in terms of message and art. It attempts to address some of the limitations of earlier versions of the campaign.

To expand the range of artistic voices, students and artists around the globe were invited to contribute. Up until this point the artistic content has been limited by governmental concerns and the limits of popular media. By formulating this as an art exhibit rather than a public service campaign, the relationship between consent and sensuality could be explored in further depth and with greater artistic freedom.  A full list of artists on exhibit can be found here.

The new exhibit has three components: the first part in Fox Hall focuses on the connection between sensuality, relationship, and consent. The second part displayed on campus sidewalks and titled “The Joy of Consent” focuses on the positive value of consent. The third part of the exhibit, titled “I am the Me”, focuses on the variety of victims and potential victims. It includes self-portraits of victims and people who see themselves as potential victims.

Both the UK and US public service campaigns have been criticized for using only professional model-quality white women as potential rape victims. Unless ordinary people are seen as victims, people may not make the connection between their day to day interactions and the campaign message. Thus the first part includes male and non-white artistic models. The third component insures that ordinary people, and not just professional models are included as potential victims.

From "Joy of Consent" (Tony Ward)

A second criticism of the original campaign is its focus on the negative: it teaches what isn’t a yes to sex, but neglects to teach what is a yes to sex. Increasingly anti-rape advocates are feeling that “no means no” needs to be replaced with “only yes means yes”. Hence, the exhibit titled “The Joy of Consent”.

Photos of all three parts of the exhibit can be found on Facebook.

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This year the United Nations has chosen the theme “Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all” for International Women’s Day.

First observed in 1911, International Women’s Day events typically focus on women’s stories and women’s empowerment. In the UK alone more than 160 events have been registered with the International Women’s Day website. They include story-telling, comedy routines, free beauty therapies, lectures, art exhibits, food bazaars, special television programming, charity fund-raisers, film-screenings, poetry readings, conferences, marches, and a discussion in the House of Lords.

Equally diverse activities can be found around the globe. In India, there is a run in Bangalore sponsored by Adidas and free tailoring classes in Lucknow. In Guatemala and Bolivia, two women artists blogging and cycling from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala to Bogota, Columbia to learn more about the lives of women in those countries. The ride will end with an art exhibit in Bogota, Columbia. In Nigeria, a day of advocacy is planned with TV and radio broadcasts, meetings with political and religious leaders, a solidarity march, lectures and an award ceremony.

In the blogosphere, International Women’s Day (IWD) is being observed with blogathons and story collection drives. To participate, visit any one of these sites:

• Gender Across Borders IWD Blogathon is running a blogathon based on the 2010 UN theme of “Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all”
• Bloggers Unite: International Women’s Day
• Reuter’s News Service will be sponsoring a live blogging event
• Indusladies.com is requesting blogs on 10 different development issues, including doweries, sex trafficking, woman’s health, and equity in the workplace.
• The Ubuntu Women’s website is promoting women in technology by collecting stories from women about when they first started using Ubuntu.

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The second annual wilderness retreat for survivors of rape, sponsored by the author of Resurection after Rape will be an opportunity for for survivors to celebrate and meet with other proud, positive survivors from across the country, for a time of happiness, victory, and healing!

The retreat will include discussions lead by experts and leaders in rape trauma, a concert by Grammy award winning musician Bill Miller, and opportunities to engage in creative rituals for healing, grieving, and cleansing.

Location: Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA
Dates: April 9-11, 2009

For more information, please see:

http://www.resurrectionafterrape.org/spiritualretreat.html

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